Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill: deliberation; PSIRA Budget Report

Meeting report

Chairperson’s opening remarks
The Chairperson welcomed everyone and indicated that the Committee would receive an update from the legal drafting team on the outstanding matters on the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill. The Committee was still waiting for the outstanding legal opinion from Parliament in relation to clause 26 and there were delays in the process of getting this legal opinion. The Committee received permission from the National Assembly (NA) to now allow the public and interested parties to comment on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) Amendment Bill to be published in the Government Gazette this coming Friday. The interested parties will be given three weeks to give inputs and this means that the Committee would be compelled to work during the upcoming recess period. This was not problematic since other committees would be working during the recess period. The Draft Programme showed that the Committee would be meeting from 27 June up until 5 July dealing with the IPID Amendment Bill. The Committee still needed to request permission from the House Chairperson to have these meetings.

The Chairperson added that the Committee would then have a very important meeting on 13 June focusing on the spate in cash-in-transit heists around the country. The Committee has invited SAPS, the big three security companies, South African Banking Risk Information (SABRIC), Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA) as well as private security alliances and labour unions. It was clear that cash-in-transit heists had been escalating although there had been successes but the situation is currently far from perfect. The Committee would like to hear from the legal drafting team on any issue that was still outstanding.

Update on the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill
Brigadier Bert Van Der Walt, Head: Legal Support Service, South African Police Service (SAPS); stated that the amendments that the Committee agreed to in the last meeting were contained in a draft A-list and it was unclear if the subsequent Bill had been prepared by the Committee. The only outstanding matter for the legal drafting team is to peruse that legal opinion on clause 26 as soon as it becomes available.

The Chairperson suggested that the Committee should wait for the legal opinion as this was the only contentious issue. The Committee would need to schedule a special meeting to deal with the legal opinion in order to formally adopt the Bill.

Adoption of the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) Budget Report
The Chairperson tabled the report for consideration.
The Chairperson mentioned that the paragraph dealing with cash-in-transits on page 9 in the last paragraph must be scrutinised very carefully since the Committee would be dealing with the matter in the coming weeks.

Mr M Shaik-Emam (NFP) wanted to know about the responsibility of PSIRA in terms of training that is being provided to private security guards.

The Chairperson responded that perhaps PSIRA was only responsible for training standards.

The Committee Content Advisor clarified that PSIRA is in fact responsible for the training of security guards.

The Chairperson suggested that perhaps the Committee should invite the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to be part of the summit to discuss the spate of cash-in-transit heists in the country at the moment.

The Committee Content Advisor said that the Committee still needed to discuss further the use of protective gear and non-lethal weapons, like pepper spray and electroshock weapons, colloquially called tasers (Taser is a brand sold by Axon) and whether it was legal to use these weapons.
Members agreed.

Mr J Maake (ANC) requested that the acronym of SABRIC should be written in full.

The Chairperson said that there are other matters in the report that the Committee could do a follow-up with PSIRA on the meeting on Tuesday.
Members then also addressed some grammatical errors from the Report.

The Chairperson requested Members to formally adopt the Report.

Ms M Molebatsi (ANC) moved for adoption of the Report and seconded by Mr Shaik-Emam.

The Report was adopted with amendments.

Adoption of the Committee Report on the Study Tour in China
The Chairperson tabled the report for consideration.
Mr Z Mbhele (DA) indicated that the Judicial Cooperation Forum (JCF) on page 4 needed to be capitalised.

Members agreed with the suggestion.

Mr Maake suggested that there should be deletion of the words “inter-country” on the first paragraph, page 4 and replaced by “between country”.

Mr Mbhele stated that it was correct that the population of Shanghai was 24 million but the Chief Commander in the country made a qualification that the number could swell to 31 million with the commuters going in.

The Chairperson proposed that the Committee should then add a sentence that would indicate this swelling of population during the day in Shanghai.

Ms Nicolette van Zly-Goud, Committee’s Researcher; said that there should be an insertion of “benchmarking study” under paragraph 5.5 of recommendations.

Members agreed with the suggestion.

The Chairperson indicated that there was a confidential part of the research that would not be included in the report. The Committee would adopt the report on Tuesday before the engagement with PSIRA.

The meeting was adjourned.