MADLANGA J has acknowledged that “the rate of crime in South Africa is unacceptably high”56 and that “the need to fight crime is thus an important objective in our society”. 57 This is as true today as it was when it was said in the year 2000. Nature and extent of the limitation [31] The indiscriminate tentacles of interceptions reach communications of whatever nature, including the most private and intimate. Some of the communications do not in the least have anything to do with the reason for the surveillance. And some of those communicating with the subject of surveillance are collateral victims. I cannot but conclude that the limitation of the right is egregiously intrusive. Proportionality [32] Whilst I must accept that RICA serves an important government purpose, the question to answer here is: is it doing enough to reduce the risk of unnecessary intrusions? In Van der Merwe, this Court considered whether search and seizure warrants were valid despite their failure to mention the offences to which the search related. It held: “Warrants issued in terms of section 21 of the [Criminal Procedure Act] are important weapons designed to help the police to carry out efficiently their constitutional mandate of, amongst others, preventing, combating and investigating crime. In the course of employing this tool, they inevitably interfere with the equally important constitutional rights of individuals who are targeted by these warrants. Safeguards are therefore necessary to ameliorate the effect of this interference. This they do by limiting the extent to which rights are impaired. That limitation may in turn be achieved by specifying a procedure for the issuing of warrants and by reducing the potential for abuse in their execution. Safeguards also ensure that the power to issue however, interceptions conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, 50 U.S.C. § 1801, et seq., are explicitly excluded from the ambit of Title III (see 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(a)(ii), (2)(e), and (2)(f)). 56 Hyundai above n 43 at para 53. 57 Id. 24