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href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/03/apartheid-in-the-shadows-the-usa-ibm-and-south-africas-digital-police-state/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/03/apartheid-in-the-shadows-the-usa-ibm-and-south-africas-digital-police-state/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Apartheid in the Shadows: the USA, IBM and
South Africa’s Digital Police State</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">by <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/michael-kwet/"
rel="nofollow">Michael Kwet</a> - May 3, 2017<br>
</span></div>
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<p>“Beggars and vagrants” <a
href="http://www.parksec.co.za/crime-update-17-august-06-september-2015">are
not welcome</a> in Parkhurst, a mostly white suburb of
about 5,000 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Criminals of
“increasing sophistication and aggression” are <a
href="https://archive.is/rh3qV">on the prowl</a>,
residents claim. To combat local crime, community
members proposed a solution: put surveillance
everywhere. Their proposal, however, was not for
“traditional” surveillance. Thanks to the digital
revolution, Parkhurst could now integrate facial
recognition, thermal sensors, infrared tracking, and
data analytics. Armed with powerful new tech, poor
black “vagrants” can be watched, flagged, policed, and
intimidated into submission.</p>
<p>“Smart” surveillance systems are being assembled
quietly inside the country. The public has been kept
uninformed. This is the first in-depth exposé of smart
policing in South Africa.</p>
<p><strong>A New “Revolution”</strong></p>
<p>Two years ago, Parkhurst became one of the first SA
neighborhoods to embark on the installation of their own
smart surveillance system. This little community made
national headlines as the first suburb in South Africa
to get residential fiber Internet. Media outlets
whitewashed the surveillance component.</p>
<p>The Parkhurst Village Residents and Business Owners
Association fought for “Fibre to the Home” Internet.
Their primary motivation was “modern” digital
surveillance only high-speed Internet could power, <a
href="https://youtu.be/qlTZetW1Sy8?t=2162">said the
organization’s chair</a>, Cheryl Labuschagne. That
residents now have fast Internet seems to be a secondary
bonus.</p>
<p>A Vumatel employee, Giorgio Lovino, <a
href="https://youtu.be/qlTZetW1Sy8?t=1942">elaborates</a>:
the fiber “connects to the CCTV [surveillance]
cameras…throughout the suburb and it transmits the video
feed from those cameras…to a control point where their
cameras can then be monitored off-site. And it allows
them to do number plate recognition, facial recognition,
and all these types of surveillance activities.” The
CCTV system is being worked out so that it may be
affordable to the community.</p>
<p>Parkhurst plans to install infrared and heat-source
cameras to track body movements. Labuschagne says they
will use “GPS technology and so on to map where
incidents occur” and determine “what movement is
considered abnormal rather than typical movements in a
neighborhood of people walking their dogs and so on.”</p>
<p>Labuschagne leaves unstated what constitutes “abnormal”
movements. However, <a
href="http://www.csstactical.co.za/services#page64_image3">iSentry</a>,
the CCTV software Parkhurst seeks, makes it explicit.
Their promotional video, titled “<a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rol-oeBvM0c">Unusual
Behavior Detection</a>”, depicts a young, black
“beggar”, flagged by iSentry’s artificial
intelligence-based video analytics. Within moments, he
and an accomplice are brought to the ground by a gang of
cops, semi-automatic gun pointed.</p>
<p>The scene appears to be staged for promotional filming
as a “typical scenario” for how the system should work.
That is to say, Parkhurst’s 21<sup>st</sup> century
policing system is advertised to target poor black
people.</p>
<p>The iSentry system, deployed by CSS Tactical, has been
<a
href="http://sandtonchronicle.co.za/news/sandton-wiki/sandton-nonprofit-organisations/css-tactical/">installed</a>
in nearby suburbs, and is <a
href="https://www.privateproperty.co.za/advice/news/articles/eye-on-street-cameras/3507">spreading
to others</a>.</p>
<p>Parkview Police Station Commander, Colonel Moodley, <a
href="https://archive.is/OwtBK">supports</a> the
“refreshing” initiative “wholeheartedly”. Labuschagne
proclaims she is “really really hopeful that what we’ve
started is a revolution” in South Africa.</p>
<p><strong>Smart Cities: Surveillance in the Shadows</strong></p>
<p>A revolution is a number of years in the making. In
2011, the City of Johannesburg <a
href="http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7216&catid=88&Itemid=266">announced</a>
a draft <em>Growth and Development Strategy (GDS 2040)</em>
to convert Johannesburg into a “smart city” in
cooperation with the private sector. Digital technology
would <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160506223623/http:/joburg.org.za/gds2040/smartcity_synthesis.php">overhaul</a>
everything from public service delivery to crime
management using “smart infrastructure” and “intelligent
Video and Internet surveillance systems”.</p>
<p>Shortly thereafter, Johannesburg began implementing
“smart policing” based on new surveillance cameras and
centralized police data analytics. Last year, then
Mayor Parks Tau (ANC) <a
href="http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=152258">attributed</a>
smart policing to a 22% crime reduction for 2014/15 in
the wealthy central business district of Johannesburg –
a whites-only area under apartheid. Tau <a
href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/06/26/City-of-JHB-installs-smart-cameras-around-city">boasted</a>
his crime-fighting tools have “face recognition
technologies, number plate recognition technologies and
are able to detect or anticipate when a group of people
are planning a smash and grab.” The City of Cape Town
is <a
href="http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=153751">similarly</a>
<a
href="https://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/195448-cape-town-fights-crime-with-drones-acoustic-technology-and-smartphones.html">following
suit</a>.</p>
<p>High-speed Internet is critical to smart video
surveillance because it enables the transmission of high
definition feeds. Computers need richly detailed images
to identify words, faces, and other attributes. Blurry
images will not do. Thus where there is high-speed
Internet, there can also be smart surveillance.</p>
<p>At the helm of South Africa’s high-speed Internet
roll-out is <a
href="http://www.brainstormmag.co.za/cover-story/36-cover-story/9332-martin-czernowalow">Siyabonga
Cwele</a>, the former Minister of Intelligence
(2008-09) and State Security (2009-14). As SA’s former
spy boss, Cwele supported the controversial Protection
of State Information Bill which bolsters the protection
of state secrets.</p>
<p>Cwele lists no formal credentials, industry experience
or training in technology. Nevertheless, President
Jacob Zuma, himself a former intelligence chief,
appointed Cwele as Minister of the Department of
Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS). This
puts a former spy minister in charge of South Africa’s
Internet.</p>
<p>Speaking in the Western Cape, Cwele <a
href="http://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-siyabonga-cwele-2016-southern-african-telecommunications-networks-and-applications">told
South Africans</a> they “must adapt” to a “change [in]
our notions of privacy”. The “fourth industrial
revolution” – a term coined by World Economic Forum
founder Klaus Schwab – is coming to South Africa.</p>
<p><strong>Smart Policing: United States, South Africa</strong></p>
<p>Across the Atlantic, smart policing is well under way.
In 2016, a <a
href="https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing">study</a>
published by <em>ProPublica</em> found that software
commonly used in the United States to predict “future
criminals” is “biased against blacks”. Even though
there were no racial categories programmed into the
software, blacks were incorrectly ranked as “future
criminals” at almost twice the rate of white
defendants. The racist ranking could not be explained
by prior crimes or the type of crimes committed, the
study found.</p>
<p>In US public spaces, aerial surveillance drones and
smart sensors are being used for urban population
control. In 2015, the FBI <a
href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f1a797c9b286412ca72eb85b3cc35a4b/comey-fbi-used-aerial-surveillance-above-ferguson">disclosed</a>
it flew surveillance drones over Ferguson and Baltimore
during BlackLivesMatter protests prompted by police
murders of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. <a
href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-future/fbi-documents-reveal-new-information-baltimore-surveillance-flights">Published
documents</a> reveal the FBI was utilizing infrared
and night-vision cameras and keeping recordings of
aerial drone surveillance footage.</p>
<p>Cell phones are also targeted by cops. In 2015,
Baltimore residents <a
href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/08/23/baltimore-police-stingray-cell-surveillance/31994181/">discovered</a>
their city police department is <a
href="https://www.wired.com/2016/04/spy-tool-ruling-inches-stingray-debate-closer-supreme-court/">systematically
abusing</a> “stingray” devices that trick cell phone
owners into revealing their location. <a
href="http://fusion.net/story/337107/baltimore-police-department-stingrays-black-neighborhoods/">Evidence
shows</a> the stingray devices are overwhelmingly
concentrated in poor black neighborhoods, with
disproportionate impact on people of color. <a
href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/10/the-perpetual-lineup-half-of-us-adults-in-a-face-recognition-database/">Half
of all US adults</a> are now in a law enforcement
facial-recognition database. One-fourth of the nation’s
police departments have access to face-recognition
databases.</p>
<p>Smart policing is a controversial new component of the
digital era. Using smart surveillance, computers and
sensors automatically detect and interpret video feeds
and other data in real-time to facilitate ubiquitous
policing. As the cost of technology drops, corporate
and state actors are littering cities with an array of
sensors – microphones to detect gun-shots, hi-res video
for face recognition, infrared and heat to evaluate
bodily movements – and networking them with high-speed
Internet to radically expand police power.</p>
<p>Utilizing advanced data analytics, those with access to
the surveillance – corporations, police departments,
private security firms, government spy agencies – sift
through massive troves of data to hone in on groups and
persons of interest. Computer software is determining
where to concentrate cops on patrol to prevent “future
crime”, with <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2016/08/31/civil-rights-and-tech-advocates-sound-alarm-racial-bias-predictive-policing">potentially
disastrous</a> effects on civil rights.</p>
<p>The South African state is mirroring the US. The
government has <a
href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-09-01-meet-the-grabber-how-government-and-criminals-can-spy-on-you-and-how-to-protect-yourself/">“grabber”
devices</a> that pretend to be cell phone towers in
order to “track [a] phone’s movements, pinpoint its
location, intercept its calls, or eavesdrop on
conversations” – without the cell phone owner ever
knowing it. Protesters, when gathered in large groups,
are highly vulnerable to grabbers.</p>
<p>Drone surveillance has also begun. The City of Cape
Town is experimenting with aerial drones to watch over
citizens. Their website even <a
href="http://www.groundup.org.za/article/city-cape-town-plan-acquire-drones_2226/">calls
the program</a> “Big Brother”. A Pretoria-based
company, Desert Wolf, developed a drone that can spray
tear gas and fire rubber bullets at protesters. An
unnamed mining company ordered 25 units.</p>
<p>As I <a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/27/cmore-south-africas-new-smart-policing-surveillance-engine/">reported
at Counterpunch</a> in January, South Africa-based
R&D organization, the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR), has quietly developed <a
href="http://cmore.co.za/site/">Cmore</a>. A new
“Jason Bourne” type surveillance system, Cmore
aggregates and analyzes data from drone footage, CCTVs,
cell phone data, and other inputs for maritime, park,
and border policing. The CSIR considered Cmore “for
police” and subsequently partnered with the South
African Police Service (SAPS). Experiments include
“crowd-control concept demonstrations”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Johannesburg’s Intelligence Operations
Centre (IOC) is now <a
href="http://www.joburg.org.za/images/stories/2016/june/pdf/End%20of%20Term%20Report.pdf">outfitted
with</a> “100 existing high impact cameras” enabled
for software-based “Intelligent Video Analytics as an
input into Intelligent Law Enforcement”. The new <a
href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/12/13/Mashaba-sticks-to-his-guns-about-illegal-immigrants">anti-immigrant
mayor</a> of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba (DA), <a
href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/opinion/2016/04/10/Herman-Mashaba-my-vision-for-smartening-up-SAs-biggest-city">endorsed</a>
predictive policing in April 2016, months before his
election victory.</p>
<p>Five years prior, IBM, the major <a
href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/02/eff-files-amicus-brief-case-seeks-hold-ibm-responsible-facilitating-apartheid">computer
and surveillance partner</a> to the apartheid state, <a
href="https://smartercitieschallenge.org/assets/cities/johannesburg-south-africa/documents/johannesburg-south-africa-summary-2011.pdf">partnered</a>
with the City of Johannesburg to define a roadmap which
includes crime prevention and investigative analytics.</p>
<p><strong>IBM Corporation: Apartheid Past and Present</strong></p>
<p>In 2002, South Africans brought a law suit against US
corporations alleging direct support for human rights
violations committed by the apartheid regime. IBM, SA
plaintiffs claimed, provided technology used to
implement the apartheid-era racial classification
system.</p>
<p>The USA continuously <a
href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/time-act-companies-selling-mass-spy-gear-authoritarian-regimes">provides</a>
technology to oppressive foreign regimes. In years
past, multiple US corporations played a treacherous role
<a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200805130448.html">assisting</a>
South African apartheid. IBM has been among the worst
offenders.</p>
<p>Beginning in the 1930s, IBM New York, under the
direction of its president, Thomas Watson, Sr., <a
href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/02/eff-files-amicus-brief-case-seeks-hold-ibm-responsible-facilitating-apartheid">supplied</a>
Hollerith punch card systems to their IBM Germany
subsidiary for use by the Third Reich. IBM machines
were customized for the Nazis to efficiently track and
sort groups targeted for persecution and genocide.
Numbers tattooed on Auschwitz inmates began as IBM punch
card system identification numbers.</p>
<p>During apartheid, with Thomas Watson, Jr. now
president, IBM New York leased its IBM South Africa
subsidiary with specialized technology tailored for the
apartheid state. In 1952, the apartheid regime ordered
its first electronic tabulator to IBM South Africa.
There is <a
href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2724563/United-States-Ford-SADF-Collaboration-Complaint.pdf">ample
evidence</a> their technology was used to categorize,
segregate and denationalize blacks.</p>
<p>In 1965, IBM <a
href="http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventories/inv_pdfo/AG1977/AG1977-A11-8-3-001-jpeg.pdf">lost
a bid</a> to produce passbooks targeting the black
population. However, they won the contract to build the
eerie “<a
href="http://wiser.wits.ac.za/sites/default/files/Breckenridge%20-%202014%20-%20The%20Book%20of%20Life%20The%20South%20African%20Population%20Reg_0.pdf">Book
of Life</a>” issued after 1970 – a surveillance
project covering additional races (e.g., coloureds,
Indians, and whites).</p>
<p>Computer automation of the population register <a
href="https://www.docdroid.net/GjdLcbl/narmic-american-friends-service-committee-1992-automating-apartheid.pdf.html">helped
streamline</a> the infamous “reference book” system.
The reference books (scorned as “dompas” or “dumb pass”)
were designed to monitor and control blacks from a
centralized location, the Central Reference Bureau in
Pretoria.</p>
<p>As Keith Breckenridge’s <em>Biometric State</em>
(2014) details, police desired the ability to swiftly
identify and locate “Natives” by their national ID or
fingerprints contained in the passbooks. It was “a
single, cost-effective tool that would allow the police
to track elusive African suspects.”</p>
<p>But this form of centralized surveillance had
weaknesses – people would lose or burn their dompas or
rip out or forge pages. An unwieldy registration
backlog quickly ballooned out of control. The dystopian
dream of panoptic population control by an all-seeing
state failed, but the consequences were brutal.
Apartheid cops used the passbook system to perpetrate
mass violence and incarceration against blacks.</p>
<p>IBM New York, the central headquarters which provided
technology and expertise to its SA subsidiary, has
denied liability. Last June, they successfully <a
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-apartheid-idUSKCN0Z61KA">fought
off</a> the law suit brought to US courts by black
South African plaintiffs representing victims of
apartheid. Plaintiffs included relatives of those
tortured, raped, and murdered, in many instances in
connection with passbook violations.</p>
<p>In 2011, the City of Johannesburg <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170501222229/https:/www.smartercitieschallenge.org/cities/johannesburg-south-africa">announced</a>
a partnership with IBM to conduct a “five-year public
safety strategy in line with the city’s 2040 vision of a
smart city”. Unlike the “dumb” passbook system, IBM’s
latest system is “smart”: it uses “integrated
intelligence” for “crime prevention and investigation –
including increased police presence and visibility,
better coordination amongst agencies, and a data center
with predictive analytics” as well as “intelligence
sharing”.</p>
<p>IBM bases its innovations on its new “<a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_%28computer%29">Watson</a>”
supercomputer system famous for surpassing humans in the
quiz show Jeopardy. Their <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170501222405/http:/researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view_group.php?id=1394">Smart
Vision Suite</a> includes “moving object detection,
tracking, object classification, color classification,
and face tracking” as well as “large scale learning of
vehicles and pedestrians”. They have a <a
href="http://www.fin24.com/Tech/Companies/IBM-to-launch-Joburg-inner-city-research-lab-20150206">ten-year
partnership</a> with South Africa’s Department of
Science and Technology.</p>
<p><strong>SA in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century: A Digital
Police State</strong></p>
<p>South Africa’s smart policing movement has escaped
public conversation. Media coverage has been mostly
taken up by tech outlets that focus on individual
technologies, and apparently <a
href="http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=155209">see
nothing wrong</a> or even <a
href="http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=158962">endorse</a>
this turn of events.</p>
<p>In March, hard-hitting investigative journalists at
amaBhungane <a
href="http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2017-03-07-jobs-for-pals-in-the-free-state-ace-magashules-playground">reported</a>
that the Free State issued and awarded a “One Stop ICT
Fusion Centre” tender in violation of proper procurement
procedures. The fusion centre will apparently provide
“an integrated ICT system for the entire provincial
government”, including “security camera surveillance and
traffic management” in a centralized control room.
Indian corporation Tech Mahindra is “the solutions
partner”.</p>
<p>There is another story here, aside from the tender:
what is Tech Mahindra up to? According to a Tech
Mahindra <a
href="http://www.techmahindra.com/sites/ResourceCenter/Brochures/new_gen_services/digital_enterprise_solution/Smart-Security-Surveillance.pdf">brochure</a>,
as a part of their “Smart City Solutions”, they provide
“Smart Security Surveillance”, which includes license
plate and facial recognition, behavior analysis, video
analytics, and real-time monitoring.</p>
<p>Mahindra Defence Systems and US-based Cisco Systems
have <a
href="http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/technology/lucknow-police-smart-surveillance/46915693">teamed
up</a> in Lucknow, India, to deploy 10,000 cameras.
In April 2015, the Uttar Pradesh government’s “state
police demonstrated drones that can be used to shower
pepper powder on an unruly mob”. Five of these “crowd
control” drones were to be launched that month; they
have a range of up to 600 meters. The surveillance
“will be very useful in managing traffic violations” as
well.</p>
<p>Mahindra is based in India. However 21<sup>st</sup>
century models and technologies of repression are
distinctly Western.</p>
<p>This is the current path for South Africa, already
begun.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is worth recalling a bit of history. In
2016, a former (now-deceased) CIA operative, Donald
Rickard, <a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/nelson-mandela-cia-arrest-south-africa-a7030751.html">happily
admitted</a> he provided intelligence which led to
Nelson Mandela’s 1962 arrest. Years later, Steve Biko
was placed under a banning order by the state, which
silenced his speech and restricted his movement. Police
detained and tortured him, leading to his tragic death.
Apartheid cops murdered <a
href="http://www.csvr.org.za/index.php/publications/1483-the-policing-of-public-gatherings-and-demonstrations-in-south-africa-1960-1994.html">untold
numbers</a> through riot control, the “prevention of
unrest”, and the policing of “public disorder”.</p>
<p>SA universities are spending millions on surveillance
to quell #FeesMustFall protests. In 2016, CCTVs at
Rhodes University mushroomed to provide what seems like
blanket coverage, even extending inside buildings.
Management <a
href="http://www.ru.ac.za/latestnews/safetyandsecurityoncampus.html">refuses</a>
to disclose details. Earlier this year, Wits University
added new CCTVs and <a
href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-03-03-00-favour-rigorous-debate-not-security">announced</a>
considerations for drone surveillance and biometrics on
campus. And in March, eNCA’s Checkpoint <a
href="https://www.enca.com/media/video/big-brother-on-campus?playlist=75588">reported</a>
that the University of Johannesburg appointed a private
security company, Bold Heart Group, that spies on
students.</p>
<p>Outside of student spaces, service delivery protests
abound. From Vuwani to Cape Town, people are active in
the streets. In response to Zuma’s latest cabinet
re-shuffle, tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people
amassed in public to exercise their constitutionally
protected right to protest.</p>
<p>On April 20, amaBhungane <a
href="http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2017-04-20-surveillance-silent-killer-of-journalism-and-democracy">launched
a challenge</a> to the constitutionality of the
Regulation of Interception of Communications and
Provision of Communication-Related Information Act
(Rica). The challenge focuses on bulk communications
interceptions. There could be no better time to also
challenge the legality and ethics of smart policing.</p>
<p>It is essential to note that both major political
parties – the ANC and the DA – are assembling the smart
surveillance state. It remains to be seen what smaller
parties like the EFF and UDM have to say – and what the
public will say itself.</p>
<p>Two decades after apartheid, <a
href="https://africacheck.org/reports/mail-onlines-claim-of-400000-poor-whites-in-south-africa-incorrect">half
the population</a> lives on $2 (R26) or less per day,
while the majority are <a
href="http://www.fin24.com/Economy/we-will-be-poorer-in-2017-20161216">getting
poorer</a>. Serious plans for large scale wealth
redistribution remain off the table. In the shadows,
the state – and some wealthy citizens – are teaming up
with corporations to unleash <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zt7bl5Z_oA">Western
policing</a> for population control.</p>
<p><em>Michael Kwet is a doctoral candidate in Sociology
at the University Currently Known as Rhodes (UCKAR).
He studies the digital revolution in South Africa,
with a focus on basic education.</em></p>
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