MADLANGA J or property which is or could be an instrumentality of serious offences or the proceeds of unlawful activities.26 Background [13] The facts are not central to the issues before us, but illustrate the potential constitutional difficulties that may arise in the application or misapplication of RICA. In the High Court Mr Sole recounted his undisputed first-hand experience of the abuse of RICA by state authorities. In 2008 he suspected that his communications were being monitored and intercepted. In 2009 he took steps to obtain full disclosure of the details relating to the monitoring and interception of his communications from the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence. These efforts were fruitless because – as he was told in a letter – the Inspector-General had found the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the crime intelligence division of the police not to be guilty of any wrongdoing. The letter continued that, as RICA prohibits disclosure of information relating to surveillance, Mr Sole could not be furnished with the information.27 Mr Sole was thus left in the dark as to whether his communications had in fact been intercepted and, if so, what the basis for interception was. [14] In 2015 in court proceedings in which Mr Sole was not a litigant transcripts of telephonic conversations between him and Mr Downer – a state prosecutor – were 26 Section 16(5)(a), in the case of interception directions; section 17(4), in the case of real-time communication-related directions; section 18(3), in the case of a combination of interception, real-time communication or archived communication directions; and section 19(4), in the case of archived communication-related directions. 27 Section 42(1) of RICA provides: “No person may disclose any information which he or she obtained in the exercising of his or her powers or the performance of his or her duties in terms of this Act, except— (a) to any other person who of necessity requires it for the performance of his or her functions in terms of this Act; (b) if he or she is a person who of necessity supplies it in the performance of his or her functions in terms of this Act; (c) information which is required in terms of any law or as evidence in any court of law; or (d) to any competent authority which requires it for the institution, or an investigation with a view to the institution, of any criminal proceedings or civil proceedings as contemplated in Chapter 5 or 6 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.” 15