OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 9.00pm.
A NEW special investigating unit is to be set up to concentrate on gangs and organised crime, Justice Minister Dullah Omar announced on Thursday.
A unit focusing on gang-related activity and violence in the Western Cape will begin operations immediately, he told a press conference in Cape Town. The unit will operate from the Western Cape under the leadership of deputy attorney-general Percy Sonn. It will be located in the office of national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.
Omar said Sonn had monitored gang activity over the past year, and had visited the United States to examine that country’s response to drug trafficking and gang violence.
The team will comprise a highly-skilled group of deputy attorneys-general, senior state advocates, senior public prosecutors and 15 of the best police investigators in the country. The National Intelligence Agency and the South African Revenue Service will also provide skilled personnel to work with the team. Specilised accountants will be made available by Business Against Crime to assist the unit investigate gangs’ financial affairs. Each team member has been carefully screened and selected on the basis of a proven track record.
“By virtue of its composition, the unit will bring together — under one roof, with one line of command — all the different agencies engaged in the fight against crime,” Omar said.
The team would review and analyse all gang-related cases which had occurred over the past five years, while the asset seizure provisions of the Drug Trafficking Act and the Proceeds of Crime Act will be used to cripple the gangs financially. For the first time, police investigators will be guided in their work by skilled prosecutors.
The work of the team will be monitored at a national level by a “control board”, consisting of the national police commissioner, the Sars national commissioner, and the director-general of the NIA.