Dear Editor
The Democratic Alliance has written to the Inspector-General for Intelligence to request that his office probes recent reports that Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has given marching orders to all State Security Agency (SSA) employees over the age of 50.
It has been reported that the Minister has called some 200 members of the SSA’s top brass to attention, announcing that every employee in the SSA above the age of 50 are to take early retirement or face retrenchment. Further reports indicate that the same ultimatum will be given to the rest of the SSA’s staff in time.
The DA is concerned that such a sweeping move by the Minister will force much-needed intelligence expertise out the door, without any consideration as to each member’s individual contribution to the SSA’s functions. Without the protections afforded by the Labour Relations Act, SSA employees are further constrained in finding suitable recourse.
Following the findings of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, which exposed grave wrongdoing within the SSA, the DA reiterated its calls for the disbandment of the entity in its entirety in order to replace it with a fully independent, efficient, and transparent state security agency, free from party-political interference. The DA maintains that the parliamentary oversight roles in respect of our national security apparatus must be intensified.
To date, no arrests have been made nor any funds recovered after the looting of the SSA during the nine lost years under former President Zuma. The entity has failed to cull the bad actors from its ranks, and has made little to no progress in rehabilitating its structures after the Capture Years.
However, a blanket call for the early retirement – and failing that, the retrenchment – of hundreds of SSA staff, without an assessment being conducted as to their performance, expertise, knowledge, or political and personal connections and involvement in nefarious activities, is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Without considering the value of each member on their own merits, or demerits, it is difficult to see how the Minister can justify culling hundreds of employees with centuries of experience in one fell swoop.
The DA has also prepared a raft of parliamentary questions to the Minister on this matter, which will be submitted to her in the near future.
Regards
Dianne Kohler Barnard MP
DA Spokesperson on State Security
noisy girl
Bonus: Southern USA: You have two cows. Their milkshake brings all the bulls to the yard, and they\’re like, it\’s better than yours. Damn right, it\’s better than yours; they can teach you, though there is a charge; but if you upvote, then you won\’t be charged!
21st Street
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”