The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday called for the unconditional and immediate scrapping of the two Bills that aim to disband the Scorpions.
Dianne Kohler Barnard said that she has the final list of public submissions on the closure of the successful organised crime-fighting unit, the Scorpions, and a clear majority, 54%, opposes the closure.
She said that during the public submissions process, the chair of the justice committee, Yunus Carrim, said: ”If through these public hearings we establish that the overwhelming majority of South Africans want the Scorpions retained, we will take it seriously.”
Kohler Barnard rejoined: ”Despite the committee chairperson’s attempts to engineer the public participation processes in support of the African National Congress resolution to shut down the Scorpions, their efforts have failed. More than 50% of submissions oppose the closure of the Scorpions — 134 submissions out of a total of 247.”
She added: ”It is inexplicable that only 247 submissions have made it into the final report, despite the DA alone submitting 7 978 written submissions by the deadline and many other submissions being sent directly by the public.
”It is clear that the portfolio committees have excluded the bulk of these submissions in an attempt to downplay the extent of the public outrage at the decision to disband the unit.
”The DA wrote to the speaker asking that a special inquiry be made into the issue of discarded submissions on August 5 2008. We have never received a reply.”
The DA wrote to Carrim on Wednesday challenging him to act on his previous statement and to withdraw both Bills with immediate effect. ”There is a need for urgency given that provisional dates have already been set for the second reading of the two Bills,” Kohler Barnard said. — I-Net Bridge