The Scorpions unit is under immense stress, acting National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head advocate Mokotedi Mpshe has conceded.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, he warned that uncertainty about the unit’s future was having a damaging effect. ”The DSO [Directorate of Special Operations, the Scorpions] is still intact, but we can’t deny their morale is low; we can’t deny there is loud talk of people looking outside [for employment].”
This could be problematic given the potential impact on current investigations, he said. ”If people do go, it will be a concern. But the DSO works on a methodology where there are teams of prosecutors, investigators and analysts … That’s a safeguard. It’s never a one-man show.”
Mpshe said he was confident that major cases, such as the Jackie Selebi and Jacob Zuma prosecutions, would not be crippled by departures and that the task team looking at the future of the DSO was aware of the need to keep the teams intact.
”There’s discussion — about transitional arrangements: that current cases must not be impacted on, that the people involved should be able to finalise them.”
An interdepartmental team, with representatives from the South African Police Service (SAPS), the National Prosecuting Authority and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, is trying to figure out how a new organised-crime combating unit might function.
But there is as yet no agreement on the reporting lines. Said Mpshe: ”The NPA has a model and the SAPS has a model. We are bound by Polokwane — the new unit can’t fall under justice, but the question is whether it falls under the command and control of the SAPS or whether we form a standalone unit reporting directly to the minister of safety and security, which is our proposal.”
Mpshe said his overriding concern was to put in place a structure that would effectively deal with organised crime. ”The problem is serious. Organised crime is very intense in this country … I sometimes think that what the DSO has done up to now is just the tip of the iceberg.”
He said there was a common commitment from the different role-players to create a new unit, but this was hampered by a lack of clarity about the real reasons for abandoning the DSO model. ”To date we don’t have any tangible rationale for this decision. Even the government has not come out yet with a policy statement behind this move.”
Mpshe said the NPA was pushing for the inclusion of representatives from other agencies, such as the South African Revenue Service and the National Intelligence Agency, as well as the provision of dedicated prosecutors attached to the unit. The police had a different view, he said, but the restructuring process should not discard ”the lessons learned by the DSO” about the benefit of prosecution-guided investigations.
Mpshe, who was appointed acting national director of public prosecutions after the suspension of Vusi Pikoli, said ”dragged-out” uncertainty about the Scorpions’ future was also bad for NPA morale, in the aftermath of Pikoli’s suspension.
”I’m convinced that, despite all this, the NPA can continue to do what it is supposed to do.”
Mpshe has drawn praise from staff for playing things straight since taking over. ”I’d be deceiving you and myself if I said it was easy; it’s not easy — even now … I say to people — do what is right, don’t do what you think people expect you to do. That’s what gives me a way of surviving.” I am in an acting position — that puts constraints on your leadership. You can’t do certain things you would do if you had the full authority,” he said.
”The sooner this is resolved, the better for the organisation.”