"surveillance is not new at all in South Africa and in fact is much less than under the previous, non-democratic government." This is a sort of sad irony of ou

"surveillance is not new at all in South Africa and in fact is much less than under the previous, non-democratic government." This is a sort of sad irony of our day. It turns out that technology/accessibility are more important than ideology in determining how much surveillance happens. Non democratic surveillance states like apartheid SA or stazi East Germany might have been ideologically in favour of using surveillance to depress democracy but even ostensibly liberal-democratic regimes today do more of it.. because it's cheap, easy and "standard practice around the world."