Scorpions a ‘monster’ that ‘must be undone’

According to Business Day, the process to integrate the Scorpions into the police is under way by the Justice and Safety and Security Departments. This is despite the fact that the legislative process to move the unit from the National Prosecuting Authority has not begun. Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla’s spokesperson, Zolile Nqayi, confirmed that talks on implementation of the ANC decision to dissolve the Scorpions had begun at an inter-ministerial and administrative level. ‘The Minister cannot challenge political decisions, so plans for the integration are being discussed,’ Nqayi said. It remains unclear if the government would consider the call by the Public Service Association for consultation on the issue before implementation. Political analyst Steven Friedman said that any talk of integration of the Scorpions into the SAPS was making a mockery out of the country’s constitutional democracy. ‘The Scorpions were created by an Act of Parliament, and there has to be an amendment to the Act to dissolve the unit. Even if one assumes that the ANC is the ruling party and it can drive the process in Parliament, we are forgetting that before the matter is considered, there has to be a public participation process. ‘The process has to agree with the decision to integrate the Scorpions into the SAPS. If not, and Parliament resolves on the matter, the Scorpions’ future could end up in the Constitutional Court’, Friedman said. Full Business Day report

The ANC had ‘created a monster’ in the Scorpions, and this monster had to be undone, the party’s new secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, said. The ANC has been widely criticised for resolving at its Polokwane conference last month to incorporate the successful elite investigation unit into the police. ‘It looks like the ANC has only resolved to dissolve the Scorpions – that is but one resolution (taken at the Polokwane conference) ... The question of the Scorpions is that we created a monster, and we must undo it. Where you concentrate power in one unit it is a problem,’ Mantashe said, according to Business Day. The Scorpions have led several investigations against ANC heavyweights, including its president, Jacob Zuma, and national police chief Jackie Selebi, and many in the party believe it has become a law unto itself. The ANC wants to incorporate the unit into the police and to strip it of its prosecutorial role. Full Business Day report

The Scorpions are not going quietly into the SAPS in July. Investigators are launching a two-pronged attack on the ANC’s decision to disband them, says a report in City Press, which notes that in several meetings last week, they resolved to challenge the legality of the decision to incorporate them into the SAPS. They also defied their bosses and passed a motion of no confidence in the acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Mokotedi Mpshe, whom they accuse of ‘sheepishly agreeing’ to disband them. After the flurry of meetings, one with management, the investigators agreed to appoint the Public Service Association (PSA) to seek legal opinion on the legality of the ANC decision in Polokwane and to elect a committee that will properly represent them at the meeting of directors-general today (Thursday). PSA deputy head Manie de Klerk said: ‘We decided to get involved in this process to ensure that the rights of our members were not infringed upon. We will be seeking legal advice on behalf of our members, but the process has not yet started.’ Full City Press report

Mpshe has conceded that certain ANC members may benefit from the Scorpions being disbanded. In the So Many Questions feature in the Sunday Times, he said he didn’t want to get into ‘the political arena’, but added that ‘when they (the Scorpions) are under a different structure they may not be able to employ the methodology they have been employing under the DSO. They may not have access to the legal framework under which they’ve been working, or other methods that have been legislated. So their wings may be clipped a little bit’. He said he had no idea why the ANC had set a June date for the process to be completed, but added it would not affect the Zuma trial. ‘The charges are already there, Zuma will be going to court. The same prosecutors who are busy with that matter will continue with that matter.’ Full interview in the Sunday Times

The DA has made a plea for government to reconsider the decision. The Scorpions are our last effective corruption-busting unit and disbanding them will affect the fight against organised crime, it said in Cape Town. ‘Every time special units were integrated (into the police), it has impacted on the ability to fight crime in that area,’ the party’s spokesperson on justice Tertius Delport is quoted as saying in a report in The Citizen. He cited the old SA Railway Police, the family violence, child protection and s exual offences units and anti-poaching unit Operation Neptune as examples. ‘The whole culture in the police is contrary to what we need to investigate high-level crime,’ he said. The police had a ‘poor track record’ on anti-corruption activities and were vulnerable to it from within. The advantage of the unit, officially called the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), was that it combined intelligence gathering, criminal investigation and prosecution. ‘This powerful combination of skills and expertise led by a qualified and experienced prosecutor means that the DSO is able to conduct investigations that are solid and will stand up in court.’ Full report in The Citizen

The decision by the ANC to disband the Scorpions is seen by all as a political move. However, if legislation giving effect to this decision was declared invalid, it would ‘thrust the (Constitutional) Court in the middle of a broedertwis among members of the ruling party’, says Pierre de Vos in an article on the Mail & Guardian Online site. He says to do so could potentially affect the legitimacy of the court, and hence the Constitutional Court would ‘do almost anything’ to avoid having to make a decision on this matter. He goes on to suggest the best route to follow is the labour law avenue of defence, with the Scorpions arguing that being incorporated into the SAPS will result in a downgrading of their posts – as they would not have the same status and working conditions as they had in the Scorpions. However, he says that if the process is managed well by government, it will be difficult for a court to intervene and it would mean the end of the Scorpions and a subsequent ‘rise in corruption among government officials’. He concludes that because we are used to the Constitutional Court winning our battles for us, ‘we will lose the Scorpions and we will lose the only institution that stands between us and the rise of a kleptocracy.’ Full Mail & Guardian Online report