{"id":26314,"date":"2016-06-24T02:08:26","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T02:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/experts-say-south-africa-suffers-intelligence\/"},"modified":"2016-06-24T02:08:02","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T02:08:02","slug":"experts-say-south-africa-suffers-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/experts-say-south-africa-suffers-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts say South Africa suffers intelligence gaps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Johannesburg &#8211; Weaknesses in South Africa&#8217;s police and intelligence agencies could make the country particularly vulnerable to an extremist attack, security experts warned. However, the analysts said they are not aware an immediate threat.}<\/p>\n<p>Concern about militant threats increased this month when the US Embassy warned of information indicating &#8220;terrorist groups&#8221; were planning attacks against upscale shopping malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The Islamic State group called for attacks worldwide during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n<p>Government downplayed the US warning, saying the information was unreliable and that it is capable of protecting people on its soil.<\/p>\n<p>Resources for combating militant threats are limited and there is a perception that such attacks only happen elsewhere, Anneli Botha, a consultant on radicalisation and terrorism, said on Wednesday. South Africa is an economic hub with Western interests that has been spared devastating attacks like those elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not saying an attack is imminent,&#8221; Botha told the Foreign Correspondents&#8217; Association of Southern Africa. She cautioned: &#8220;We cannot say that this will never happen to us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For years, extremists are believed to have used South Africa as a safe haven or potential pool for recruits, including some who have sought to join ISIS in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, a South African judge convicted Nigerian Henry Okah, arrested in Johannesburg, for bombings in Nigeria. Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, a Tanzanian convicted in the United States for the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Tanzania, was arrested in Cape Town.<\/p>\n<p>Security consultant Nick Piper said security shortfalls are evident in the regular armed robberies in shopping areas.<\/p>\n<p>Piper described security on the Gautrain as &#8220;shoddy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-12998 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/422e89045d47428ba5c3695d95f1f346.jpg\" alt=\"Security cameras\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Johannesburg &#8211; Weaknesses in South Africa&#8217;s police and intelligence agencies could make the country particularly vulnerable to an extremist attack, security experts warned. However, the analysts said they are not aware an immediate threat.} Concern about militant threats increased this month when the US Embassy warned of information indicating &#8220;terrorist groups&#8221; were planning attacks against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2462],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-news-24"],"bylines":[{"id":2462,"name":"News 24","slug":"news-24","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2462,"name":"News 24","slug":"news-24","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26314"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26314"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}