Abstract
Investigating cyber surveillance for law enforcement purposes
The right to privacy, including the right to private communications, is protected by section 14
of the Constitution. Nevertheless, although being a fundamental right, this right is not
unqualified and is subject to restrictions as stated in section 36 of the Constitution, so long as
those restrictions are fair and acceptable in a society that is free and democratic. The conflict
between the defence of individual rights to privacy and the necessity of effective law
enforcement is central to the present debate in South Africa on cyber surveillance. The
discussion looks into the complex workings of cyber surveillance in South Africa, with a focus
on how internet and mobile service providers gather information. It aims to give a full
breakdown of what these surveillance practices mean legally, and in real life how they affect
people's right to privacy and how well law enforcement works. By looking at relevant laws,
court cases and advancing technology, this study wants to add to the ongoing debate about
finding the right balance between keeping people safe and respecting their privacy in South
Africa. One case which will be discussed in this paper is the Amabhungane Constitutional
Court case which is a landmark judgement that declared some sections of the constitution
unconstitutional as RICA did not provide adequate protections to those under surveillance. The
study done in this dissertation makes evident the difficulty of dealing with legal, ethical and
practical issues regarding cyber surveillance in South Africa.