The South African Police Service (SAPS) is to submit a list of issues on Tuesday that it would prefer to be discussed behind closed doors at the Khampepe commission into the future of the Scorpions.
Judge Sisi Khampepe, after hearing submissions in Pretoria on Monday on whether the commission’s proceedings should be held in camera, requested SAPS legal representative Philip Jacobs to submit a list of issues the police would prefer not be made public.
”In order to give the matter proper consideration, I think it would be appropriate that you be given the opportunity to identify what specific issues you want to be held in camera,” Khampepe said.
Jacobs in his initial submission on Monday argued members of the public should be excluded when evidence or addresses by the SAPS were heard, and that should the judge rule to have the hearings made public, the SAPS should be given the option of having certain issues heard in camera.
Jacobs said the police feared security risks and that proceedings concerning high-profile cases may be compromised should certain police submissions be heard in public.
”Many of the submissions of the SAPS are of such a nature that, if released, they could be used contra the ends of justice,” said Jacobs.
Said George Bizos, representing the National Intelligence Agency: ”The rationale behind the establishment of the Directorate of Special Operations [DSO] and its location is a matter of public record in legislation and memoranda.
”On what possible basis can that be a matter which may prejudice the SAPS?”
Said DSO legal representative Marumo Moerane: ”The president can only appoint a commission in matters of public concern. The whole object is to investigate a matter of public concern.”
He argued the police service had not made a case for a blanket exclusion of members of the public from the commission.
”We submit that it is a simple matter to sever the sensitive [information] from the non-sensitive, and [that] greater harm would arise from the blanket exclusion of members of the public.”
Moerane said the public’s right to information was an important consideration in whether to hold the hearings in camera.
”The SAPS views the public’s interest as peripheral; it is our view that the public’s right to information is of cardinal importance.”
Agreeing with a submission by the Foundation for Human Rights, Moerane said the SAPS had not made a convincing case to hold the hearings in camera.
”In order to justify the exclusion of the public or of some members of the public, the SAPS should have made a cogent case for such an exclusion. The SAPS has not done so.”
President Thabo Mbeki appointed the commission in March to investigate the Scorpions’ future.
Monday was the beginning of an expected two weeks of oral submissions into whether the Scorpions should be shifted from the control of the National Prosecuting Authority to that of the SAPS. — Sapa