When their trademark black cars rolled up at British socialite Mark Thatcher’s gates in Cape Town a few months ago, the members of South Africa’s elite Scorpions unit knew they were netting their biggest catch to date.
Suspected of bankrolling an alleged coup plot in the Central African republic of Equatorial Guinea, Thatcher was arrested on August 25 as part of investigations into a conspiracy to topple long-time President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
But the Directorate for Special Operations (DSO) — the Scorpions’ almost 007-like official moniker — has also been ruffling feathers in many other quarters of South Africa.
They have treaded the highest corridors of power, probing Deputy President Jacob Zuma’s involvement in a controversial multibillion-rand arms deal; Zuma’s business adviser Schabir Shaik is currently on trial on corruption and fraud-related charges in a South African court.
The unit is also chasing MPs in a travel-voucher scam, has successfully busted numerous Nigerian “419” fraudsters, and unearthed a massive lobster-smuggling ring in Cape Town’s harbours.
“I think you can probably say we made our highest-profile arrest with Mark Thatcher,” said Ruben Richards, a senior Scorpions official and one of the founding members of the unit.
“It was a question of ‘who was your mother again? We don’t really care’,” he said in an interview.
Margaret Thatcher’s son is due to appear in court this week to answer charges that he helped bankroll the alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea by putting up $275 000.
Yet, despite all the high-profile arrests and hype, very little is known about the Scorpions, called to life by President Thabo Mbeki shortly after his election in 1999.
“The impact of the Scorpions on the South African public’s psyche after four years of operation cannot be underestimated,” said Jean Redpath, a freelance researcher specialising in criminal justice issues.
“But even their official name [the DSO] … draws blank looks,” she said in an analysis on the Scorpions, written for the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.
Mbeki launched the unit because of public perception that crime was out of hand, having sharply increased since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.
It is tasked with tackling top-level crimes with the specific aim of securing convictions. So far, investigators claim a 90% success rate.
Said Richards: “In one sentence, the Scorpions are basically the FBI of South Africa.”
But the investigative arm of the country’s National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) — the Scorpions is a separate law-enforcement body to the police — has sailed into troubled waters.
A storm broke last year around the head of then national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, the NPA’s boss, who levelled corruption allegations against Zuma, who is tipped to succeed Mbeki when his term ends in 2009.
Ngcuka subsequently quit his job in May after what many believed was political fallout.
The unit is also accused of fudging its high conviction rate because, unlike the police, it is allowed to choose the cases it investigates, and there are no measures in place to keep it in check.
But Richards said new recruits are carefully chosen and screened, after which they are taught to use brain power, as much as brawn, to solve cases.
At a training camp outside Pretoria, a new bunch of Scorpions recruits recently put the finishing touches to months of gruelling training, including learning how to shoot guns, high-speed driving
in the unit’s souped-up “Scorpmobiles” and spotting the finer details of white-collar crime.
Said one prospective Scorpion, 24-year-old Sipiwe: “I joined because I wanted to do something for my country.”
“But it also gives me the chance to combine the two passions in my life — forensic auditing and fast cars.” — Sapa-AFP