/ 6 November 2008

Lessons the Scorpions taught us

Beyond all the bluster and political posturing, let’s be clear: the vast majority of us in the ANC are not triumphalist, are not gloating, about the dissolution of the Scorpions.

This is a sad occasion. For what was meant to be an elite, efficient, powerful, organised crime-fighting unit, the pride of the nation has become a source of division. We’ll forever disagree on who is responsible for what in this saga and how we have come to this. And we cannot continue like this. We have to move on. We must. We have learned our lessons. Let us heed them.

And let us be clear. None of us in the ANC says the new organised crime-fighting model is perfect. But enough of us say this unit is workable. Give it a chance. Let it develop. This is work in progress. We have provided the basic features of the new model. We can improve on it. It will have to be considered further in three contexts: the finalisation of the new proposed integrated criminal justice system; the pending overhaul of the SAPS Act as a whole; and the minister of safety and security’s report to Parliament within three years on the performance of the new unit and the need for any legislative amendments. The nature, scope and methods of organised crime change constantly, so we have to review our organised crime-fighting unit and its methods regularly.

It’s not as if we came to this new model lightly. We didn’t just blindly implement the Polokwane resolution. Parliament’s not some sub-committee of the ANC. We refused to abandon our legislative role. We had extensive public hearings. We spent more than 190 hours on the Bill in formal meetings and another 100 hours in informal exchanges with key stakeholders. We unanimously rejected the weak, limp SAPS Bill the executive offered us and we rewrote it to ensure a more effective organised crime-fighting unit.

We tried to find a balance between providing a firm framework for the new unit and not being too prescriptive. We tried to balance the unit being independent and being a part of the SAPS in a way that avoids replicating the tensions between the Scorpions and the SAPS. We tried to find a way of recognising the specialty of organised crime and ensuring that it is located as part of our fight against crime as a whole. These balances are right for now, given the specific circumstances we’re in. But what’s there to stop us from altering the balance, if we have to?

Based on the Scorpions experience, to avoid the new unit being politically biased, we have provided for an independent complaints mechanism for now. But we can’t focus on the new unit without considering the SAPS as a whole. So we have suggested that either the Independent Complaints Directorate be strengthened or a new mechanism be created to attend to all forms of complaints about the SAPS generally when the SAPS Act is overhauled.

Yunus Carrim is chair of Parliament’s committee on justice and constitutional development