Public Service Commission Act, 1997
R 385
Intelligence Services Act, 2002 (Act No. 65 of 2002)Intelligence Services Regulations, 2003Chapter I : General Provisions4. Profile of an Intelligence Officer |
| 1) | Attributes and qualities needed by a member to be successful as an Intelligence Officer include — |
| a) | faithfulness to the Republic of South Africa and the Constitution; |
| b) | obedience to the laws of the Republic of South Africa; |
| c) | disregard for a manifestly illegal order; |
| d) | respect for the norms, values and principles of a democratic society including the basic human rights of individuals; |
| e) | responsibility in the handling of information and intelligence, and the prevention, at all costs, of the unauthorised disclosure of national security interests; |
| f) | the ability to facilitate an early warning system to assist policy makers in identifying harmful trends; |
| g) | the ability to determine the cause and effect in order to find links in the chain of evidence, discerning between fact and fiction and distinguishing between essentials and non—essentials; |
| h) | inquisitiveness, ingenuity, ability to attend to detail and express ideas clearly, correctly, concisely and completely; |
| i) | facilitation of other opinions, ways of thinking and behaviour as well as understanding the reason for other people’s thought processes and conduct; |
| j) | flexibility and open–mindedness; |
| k) | principal interests in serving intelligence while displaying moderation with regard to promoting own ambition and aspiring for personal reward; |
| l) | compliance with the "need to know" principle; |
| m) | integrity, trustworthiness, humanity and compassion; |
| n) | strategising, displaying intuition and predictiveness; |
| o) | knowledge of practical psychology to interpret an operational situation; |
| p) | identification and keeping track of, and advising on political, economic, environmental and social developments nationally and internationally; |
| q) | assistance in the development of effective control systems in order to maximize the collection of state revenue and reducing corruption, white-collar crime and mis-management within state departments and public-sector agencies; |
| r) | the ability to facilitate early preventive action and thereby avoiding unnecessary crises and devastating human cost; |
| s) | the ability to memorise faces, events and places; |
| t) | great patience; |
| u) | proficiency in foreign languages in order to conduct operational tasks comfortably and readily; |
| v) | courage and the ability to take risks; |
| w) | simulating rage, or impatience, or sympathy, without losing control of emotions, hiding real feelings as well as assuming a false appearance, if needed; |
| x) | conduct that upholds the integrity of the Intelligence Services or the Academy, as the case may be. |
| 2) | To engender the resolve to have an intelligence officer with the qualities outlined above, the conditions of service of the Intelligence Services and the Academy need to compare favourably with national and international best practices. |
