Inside Politics Reporter
President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended the Inspector-General of Intelligence, Imtiaz Fazel, pending the outcome of a parliamentary investigation into his conduct, the presidency said late on Wednesday.
Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI) notified the president that it had received a complaint about Fazel’s conduct and would conduct an inquiry in accordance with Section 7(4) and 7(5) of the Intelligence Services Act of 1994.
Section 7(5) of the Act empowers the president to suspend the Inspector-General while such an investigation is under way.
The Inspector-General has been suspended with immediate effect pending the decision by the committee, the presidency said in a statement.
Fazel, appointed to the post in 2022, is responsible for overseeing the activities of South Africa’s intelligence agencies to ensure they operate within the law and respect citizens’ rights.
The presidency did not provide details on the nature of the complaint or the expected timeline for the JSCI probe.
This is a developing story.
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