THREE of the 10 candidates shortlisted for the vacant position of inspector-general of intelligence were grilled by Parliament's joint standing committee on intelligence (JSCI) yesterday.
The post has been vacant since April last year, when Faith Radebe’s term of office ended.
The JSCI has shortlisted 10 candidates for the contentious position, which they have been working to fill since 2015.
The committee will be looking for a candidate all parties can agree on, as the candidate needs the support of a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
The position is provided for in the constitution and in terms of the Intelligence Services Oversight Act. The inspector-general, who must be independent, reports to the joint standing committee and the president.
The office has powers to investigate, arrest, prosecute and make orders and give directions during investigations.
Mpho Nchabeleng, Bruce Watson and Jayashree Govender were the first to be interviewed. The remaining seven will be grilled today.
Govender, who holds a Master's degree in law from the University of Pretoria, is among the favourites for the post. She is the legal adviser in the office.
She was the senior prosecutor at the National Prosecuting Authority for four years, between 1999 and 2003. Govender has been rendering legal advice to the office, conducting intelligence oversight of the police and interpreting legislative instruments.
Nchabeleng has two Master's degrees – in business administration and law.
He also worked at the office of the inspector-general of intelligence's constitutional structure, dealing with oversight of the intelligence services, SAPS intelligence division and SA National Defence Force division. Nchabeleng is also the former ANC legal adviser at Luthuli House.
Watson, an information science and knowledge dynamics professor at Stellenbosch University, was among the three interviewed.
He holds a PhD in computing science and computer engineering from Eindhoven University in the Netherlands, and a PhD in computer science from the University of Pretoria.
Watson also has expertise in cybersecurity, intelligence analysis and cyberwarfare, systems thinking and evaluation, big data and data science.
He is the director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research, focusing on knowledge acquisition and representation of intelligence systems. Watson is also the director of the Centre for Knowledge Dynamics and Decision-making.
The interviews will continue today.