R2K CALLS FOR REFORM OF RICA

This article below was published by EWN:

The campaign is calling on state institutions to stop the abuse of its surveillance capabilities.

Supporters of the Right to Know (R2K) campaign during a picket on 28 September 2015. Picture: Shayne Robinson.

CAPE TOWN – The Right to Know (R2K) campaign is calling on state institutions to stop the abuse of its surveillance capabilities.

Today, a group of activists from the movement had gathered in front of Parliament where they launched a memorandum, which will be handed over to officials at the Office of the Interception Centres in Sandton tomorrow.

The memorandum is calling for a reform of South Africa’s Regulation of Interception of Communications and Communication-related Information Act (Rica).

This follows a scathing report by the United Nations Human Rights Committee last month, condemning the country’s abuse of surveillance capabilities.

R2K’s Murray Hunter said, “We are calling on the Department of Justice and the State Security Agency to bring about urgent reform and for us it’s a major issue of human rights in South Africa.”

(Edited by Shimoney Regter)