President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended the Inspector-General of Intelligence, Imtiaz Fazel, pending the outcome of an investigation by Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI) into his conduct.
This as the JSCI informed the President that it had received a complaint regarding the conduct of the Inspector-General, and that the committee would conduct an investigation in accordance with Section 7(4) and 7(5) of the Intelligence Services Oversight Act (Act 40 of 1994).
Section 7(5) of the Act stipulates that “if the Inspector-General is the subject of an investigation by the (JSCI) in terms of subsection (4), he or she may be suspended by the President pending a decision in such investigation.”
“Mr Fazel has been suspended with immediate effect,” the Presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.
While details of the complaint remain confidential, the move signals the government’s commitment to transparency and legislative oversight within the intelligence community.
Appointed to the post in November 2022, Fazel’s five-year term is set to end in October 2027.
The Inspector-General of Intelligence’s mandate includes monitoring and reviewing the operations of South Africa’s intelligence services the State Security Agency (SSA), Defence Intelligence Division of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the Crime Intelligence Division of the South African Police Service (SAPS) to ensure they operate within the framework of the law and the Constitution.
