National Intelligence expert Professor Anthony Turton says South Africa’s failure to detect criminal activity such as truck attacks casts doubt on intelligence agencies that are funded by the state.
Five suspects arrested in the recent trucks attacks case, are set to appear in the Ermelo Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga on Monday.
The army has been deployed in areas identified as hotspots, after 20 trucks were set alight last week in Mpumalanga, KZN, Limpopo and the Free State.
Truck drivers urge Government to protect them
Professor Turton says something is not right.
“If your intelligence is not actionable, then frankly it doesn’t help you to have it. If we are allocating so much taxpayer money to the process of intelligence gathering, and we are not getting actionable intelligence, then something is not right somewhere. Who is going to be held accountable? If any of the intelligence structures are aware of these things, but fail to report them, that is entirely another animal. The significant amount of taxpayers money being allocated to intelligence gathering functions, why are we not getting intelligence in advance? Why is this thing festering and getting worse?”
