Bugs in the system
Such was the nature of the attack from lawmakers – one Vodacom executive called it a "bashing" – that took place at a meeting of the justice and constitution portfolio committee.
Matlare and his colleagues were trying to convince the committee that the new spying law was impractical to implement in its present form.
But there was a vehement counterattack from committee chairman Fatima Chohan and her fellow ANC parliamentarians. The DA’s business-friendly Sheila Camerer was in less of a fighting mood.
One executive said there was no reason for the committee’s tough stance to get the cell companies to comply with some of the regulations because service providers were already helping police in their crime-fighting initiatives.
He said the Leigh Matthews’ murder case was an example: "So what more do they want?"
The contentious legislation is the Regulation of Interception of Communication-Related Information Amendment Bill. The bill requires cellphone companies to comply with the government’s crime-fighting initiatives.
First submitted in 2002, it soon became clear that cellphone companies were not covered, so a bill – a draft law – was introduced.
The bill allows the country’s crime-fighting agencies – the police and intelligence services – to monitor all electronic and other communications to counter criminal activity, including terrorism, fraud, violent crime and computer crimes.
Matlare, summing up the views of all the cellphone companies, said they could not register the names, telephone numbers and addresses of all their customers in 12 months as required by the bill. The companies want the verification process to be extended to three years.
To support their argument, they referred to the slow pace at which the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica) was implemented. Fica required banks and other financial institutions such as insurance companies to verify personal details of all their clients to counter money laundering and other criminal transactions.
Supporting this argument, Vodacom said that financial institutions failed to verify all their clients’ personal details within 12 months, despite having "much stronger contractual relationships" with their customers. Several extensions were granted and three years later the process is still incomplete.
Nkateko Nyoka, MTN’s group executive of legal services, echoed this view. He also said there were massive delays in vehicle- and gun-licence renewals.
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom’s managing director, said the companies have about 18 million prepaid customers. Assuming there are 21 working days in the month with eight registration hours, they would have to verify 8900 customers an hour. If new customers were added, it would total 9200 an hour. MTN would have to capture 4 300 people’s details in an hour and Cell C 1200 people an hour to meet the one-year deadline, Joosub said.
The cellphone executives feel the new requirement are unfair.
Their argument is that many South Africans do not have permanent residential addresses and that those in the informal sector and in rural areas would be severely prejudiced by the act. Many business people in the informal sector, they said, would be affected if they did not have the documentation to confirm their identities and places of residence.
The cellphone companies’ spokesmen said another concern was financial. Changing their systems would be costly to the companies. They also risked losing customers because the bill states that if cellphone users do not comply with its requirements their services must be terminated.
But these arguments seemed to fall on deaf ears. Led largely by what appeared to be hatchet-men from the ANC – John Jeffreys and Luwellyn Landers – the executives were given a severe bashing.
Landers said that the cellphone companies did not care about crime-fighting initiatives because they had not mentioned them once. Jeffrey’s weighed in with the accusation that the cell bosses were using scare tactics by declaring that citizens in the informal sector and rural areas would lose their livelihood and ability to communicate.
But it was clear that political imperatives were foremost in the minds of the ANC members. Chohan said that she could not tell the people that this law had not been passed because it would give the impression that "we are not serious about crime".
When the dust settled, Francois van Graan of the police explained why it was necessary for the cell companies to comply as soon as possible. Van Graan said it was important that when police went to judges for an order to bug someone’s phone, as much personal detail as possible was necessary. Otherwise the judges would refuse to grant permission.
He said the law would also cover foreigners who come into the country.
It was clear from the parties present that the troubled home affairs? database is not sufficiently extensive or reliable to supply accurate details about citizens.
The police also insisted that they needed details from various sectors of society to catch criminals.
It was quite a fight, but it is clear that a compromise will have to be found quickly to resolve the impasse between politicians and business people. Anything less than this would be a disservice to consumers and to the crime fighters.
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