The Constitutional Court must decide whether to uphold the high court’s September 2019 ruling that found in amaBhungane’s favour and declared several provisions of Rica – the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act – to be unconstitutional.
AmaBhungane launched its challenge to Rica in 2017 after learning that state security operatives had listened in on the phone communication of Sam Sole, one of our managing partners.
This followed a wider pattern of evidence that state spies routinely snoop on journalists, among many others. The information we secured about Sam’s spying served as scaffolding for a long overdue challenge to the reckless spying that Rica had enabled.
On Tuesday, 25 March, the Constitutional Court heard arguments from all parties, including counter-argument from the two entities whose spying powers were curbed by the high court’s ruling: the police and the State Security Agency (SSA). Also read:
