Advocacy organisation, the Right2Know (R2K) Campaign on Wednesday held protests in Pretoria and Cape Town against what it says is the failure of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (Rica) to protect South African citizens’ right to privacy.
R2K members held protests at the National Communications Centre, in Pretoria, and at Parliament, in Cape Town, to highlight what it says is the Rica law's failure “to protect citizens’ constitutional right to privacy.”
“Rica’s requirement that telecommunication users’ metadata – information about when, where, how and with whom they communicate – be stored for years is a massive and systemic violation of the rights of all South Africans who use digital communication,” the campaign said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The State has asserted that it has the power to mandate telecommunications providers to store metadata about South Africans’ phone calls, SMSes, emails, and Internet activity for up to five years.”
This includes the location from which those communications were made and the subject lines of emails which often indicate the content of the message.
This follows the State Security Minister’s appeal of the North Gauteng High Court’s judgment which found parts of Rica unconstitutional and invalid, as argued by the amaBhungane Centre of Investigative Journalism, which believes that the law lacks necessary safeguards to protect the public's right to privacy.
The Police Minister has also appealed Order 1 of the judgment on post surveillance notification, stating that Rica is in line with other foreign jurisdictions, particularly the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the European Union.
On Monday, the Constitutional Court will need to determine whether to admit the Ministers' appeal, and whether to hear the direct appeal on bulk surveillance, the group said.
“We remain convinced the High Court judgment will be upheld and that the Constitutional Court will make a determination even on one of the areas that we felt the High Court erred in deciding on, which is the gathering of and arbitrary use of metadata by service providers and we will be making arguments to the Constitutional Court to make a pronouncement on this.