Right2Know, R2K, a civil movement centred on freedom of expression and access to information, released statistics from various telecoms companies in the country that show how government is using a loophole in South Africa’s surveillance policies to access and spy on tens of thousands of citizens every year. The numbers showed that law enforcement agencies are spying on the communications of at least 70,000 phone numbers each year.

The investigation began in May 2017 when R2K asked MTN, Telkom, Vodacom and Cell C how many warrants they received in terms of section 205 of the Criminal Procedures Act, in 2015, 2016 and 2017. These requests aimed to understand how a legal loophole has allowed surveillance operations to take place using the Criminal Procedures Act, rather than the RICA law which is meant to be South Africa’s primary surveillance law. The RICA law stipulates that a special judge needs to approve any attempt to intercept an individual’s communication…

https://www.itnewsafrica.com/2017/08/r2k-south-african-govt-is-spying-on-mobile-users/