LETTER: Intelligence agencies failed us

The political earthquake that’s rocked SA proves that the entire intelligence establishment was fast asleep.

The extent of this failure is staggering. It will cost the country at least R2bn in destruction and job losses. Then there’s the inevitable rapid rise in Covid deaths and infections.

As time passes, more information will become available and the facts of what happened will become clearer. But a failure of this scale must have repercussions for those entrusted with safety, security and analysing real-time intelligence.

We are reeling from a series of catastrophic failures of institutional trustworthiness. This insurrection could take root because important warnings got lost amid noise or because intelligence officials lacked the skills to "connect the dots".

In our hour of crisis, we were tragically let down, and anarchy prevailed. SA will never be the same.

Farouk Araie
Benoni

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