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Reforms to the laws on the surveillance of private communications
The right to privacy is central to our constitutional order, which is founded on human dignity. The ability of the State to invade the privacy of our communications threatens the personal space within which we live “our daily lives”. The Constitutional Court in AmaBhungane evaluated the law regulati...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Department of Public Law
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613197680246784 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Kruyer, Catherine |
| author2 | Powell, Cathleen |
| author_browse | Kruyer, Catherine Powell, Cathleen |
| author_facet | Powell, Cathleen Kruyer, Catherine |
| author_sort | Kruyer, Catherine |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The right to privacy is central to our constitutional order, which is founded on human dignity. The ability of the State to invade the privacy of our communications threatens the personal space within which we live “our daily lives”. The Constitutional Court in AmaBhungane evaluated the law regulating communications surveillance – the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communications-Related Information Act 70 of 2022 (“RICA”) – and declared RICA inconsistent with the Constitution in five respects. The judgment and order of the Constitutional Court necessitates extensive and wide-ranging amendments to RICA to cure the defects identified by the Court. The Constitutional Court suspended the declarations of invalidity to give Parliament an opportunity to cure the defects. Moreover, the key principles recognised in the judgment of the Constitutional Court necessitate a more comprehensive review of RICA, which centres the right to privacy. The Constitutional Court recognised that State surveillance of our personal communications is an invasive violation of the right to privacy. It emphasized the importance of RICA containing adequate safeguards to ensure that there are not unnecessary invasions of the right to privacy. In this thesis, I consider the reforms required to cure the defects in RICA identified by the Constitutional Court in Amabhungane, as well as further reforms to existing laws required to ensure a human-rights centric approach to communications surveillance in South Africa. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41657 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:18.917Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Department of Public Law |
| publisherStr | Department of Public Law |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41657 Reforms to the laws on the surveillance of private communications Kruyer, Catherine Powell, Cathleen Private communication The right to privacy is central to our constitutional order, which is founded on human dignity. The ability of the State to invade the privacy of our communications threatens the personal space within which we live “our daily lives”. The Constitutional Court in AmaBhungane evaluated the law regulating communications surveillance – the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communications-Related Information Act 70 of 2022 (“RICA”) – and declared RICA inconsistent with the Constitution in five respects. The judgment and order of the Constitutional Court necessitates extensive and wide-ranging amendments to RICA to cure the defects identified by the Court. The Constitutional Court suspended the declarations of invalidity to give Parliament an opportunity to cure the defects. Moreover, the key principles recognised in the judgment of the Constitutional Court necessitate a more comprehensive review of RICA, which centres the right to privacy. The Constitutional Court recognised that State surveillance of our personal communications is an invasive violation of the right to privacy. It emphasized the importance of RICA containing adequate safeguards to ensure that there are not unnecessary invasions of the right to privacy. In this thesis, I consider the reforms required to cure the defects in RICA identified by the Constitutional Court in Amabhungane, as well as further reforms to existing laws required to ensure a human-rights centric approach to communications surveillance in South Africa. 2025-09-01T08:16:59Z 2025-09-01T08:16:59Z 2025 2025-09-01T08:10:44Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41657 en eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Private communication Kruyer, Catherine Reforms to the laws on the surveillance of private communications |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Reforms to the laws on the surveillance of private communications |
| title_full | Reforms to the laws on the surveillance of private communications |
| title_fullStr | Reforms to the laws on the surveillance of private communications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reforms to the laws on the surveillance of private communications |
| title_short | Reforms to the laws on the surveillance of private communications |
| title_sort | reforms to the laws on the surveillance of private communications |
| topic | Private communication |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41657 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kruyercatherine reformstothelawsonthesurveillanceofprivatecommunications |