Debate on the future of the Scorpions gained new steam on Monday as the government released a report from an inquiry it had commissioned into the elite detective unit.
The Scorpions still have a role to play in the country’s crime-fighting efforts, states the report that was submitted to President Thabo Mbeki two years ago.
The 144-page document by Judge Sisi Khampepe, on the mandate and location of Scorpions, states that the existence of the unit is ”as valid today as it was at conception”.
The release of the report comes in the same week as the General Law Amendment Bill and the National Prosecuting Amendment Bill — dealing with the disbanding of the Scorpions — are due to be tabled in Parliament.
”Despite indications that crime levels are dropping, it is my considered view that organised crime still presents a threat that needs to be addressed through an effective comprehensive strategy,” Khampepe states in the report, officially released by the Director General in the Presidency, Frank Chikane, in Pretoria.
”For this reason, it is my considered finding that the DSO [Directorate of Special Investigations, or Scorpions] still has a place in the government’s law-enforcement plan … it is my recommendation that the rationale for the establishment of the DSO is as valid today as it was at conception,” she wrote.
Khampepe, however, also had harsh words for the Scorpions and police for not working together.
”I cannot express myself more than to indicate clear dismay why high-ranking officials within the DSO and South African Police Service [SAPS] made their personal issues cloud their statutory responsibilities. I can find no plausible reasons to justify this behaviour,” she said.
Even though there was a breakdown in relations between the two, they were legally obliged to work together and it was recommended that their attitudes be ”realigned”.
The Khampepe report recommends that the special investigating unit should continue existing under the authority of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
”Having considered the totality of the evidence and the law relevant to the terms of reference, it is my considered view, for reasons that have already been comprehensively canvassed, that the DSO should continue to be located within the NPA,” the report reads.
However, political oversight and responsibility over the law-enforcement component of the DSO should be transferred to the minister of safety and security.
Chikane said this was why the Cabinet approved the two Bills dealing with disbandment the Scorpions, which are to be submitted to Parliament.
”The rationale for having a DSO, because it had to do with how you deal with high organised crime, has not gone away and therefore you need a mechanism to deal with high-level organised crime,” he said.
He said the two Bills, which will pave the way for the formation of a new unit incorporating parts of the Scorpions and the police’s organised crime unit, should be measured against how effective it will make it for the state to deal with organised crime.
”The way you measure what goes to Parliament is whether or not whatever is done weakens the capacity of the state or strengthens the capacity of the state [and] the law-enforcement agencies to intensify their war against crime,” Chikane said.
He said the decision was taken to release the report at the same time as the tabling of the two Bills to Parliament so it could form part of what people based their decisions on.
”If you are dealing with Bills dealing with the Directorate of Special Operations, people would want to see what is in the report rather than relying on a summarised [version],” Chikane said.
‘National disgrace’
Opposition parties said the full report showed the need for the continued existence of the Scorpions.
”The Inkatha Freedom Party believes that organised crime remains a serious threat, and we therefore consider the executive’s disregard of Khampepe’s recommendations a national disgrace,” the party’s safety and security spokesperson, Velhapi Ndlovu, said in a statement.
”It is clear that the disbandment of the Scorpions is a political decision and not a decision based on merit.
Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said President Thabo Mbeki was ”doubly culpable in the event that the Scorpions are disbanded”.
Firstly, he had failed to ensure the necessary cooperation between the Scorpions and the SAPS.
”Secondly, through his inaction and supine acquiescence to the [Jacob] Zuma-led African National Congress [ANC], President Mbeki has left the field completely open for the latter to bulldoze through its wish to have the Scorpions disbanded.”
Freedom Front Plus safety and security spokesperson Pieter Groenewald said Mbeki had failed the Scorpions by not implementing Khampepe’s recommendations.
”The commission’s finding that the existence of the Scorpions and its control under the NPA is indeed constitutional strengthened Mbeki’s hand. Mbeki, however, did nothing and in reality failed the Scorpions,” he said.
African Christian Democratic Party spokesperson on justice matters Steve Swart called the decision to disband and relocate the Scorpions ”scandalous”.
”The commission’s report flies directly in the face of the ANC government’s decision to disband and relocate the Scorpions,” he said.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) stuck to its guns that ”the Scorpions should be incorporated into the SAPS under one commissioner”.
Cosatu repeated its call for ”a speedy end to the elective prosecutions-of-choice, which have been the sole contribution of the regrettable ‘Scorpions’ experiment”, it said in a statement. — Sapa