President Kgalema Motlanthe’s office has agreed to consider a request by Johannesburg businessman Hugh Glenister to submit legislation disbanding the Scorpions to the Constitutional Court, Glenister’s lawyer said on Tuesday.
Glenister, who went to court unsuccessfully to block the state’s plans to dissolve the elite unit, received a letter from the presidency’s legal services division saying his ”submission will be considered before the president signs the Bill into law”.
His lawyer, Kevin Louis, said the presidency was responding to a letter Glenister wrote to Motlanthe last month, urging him to submit the legislation for review as it risked falling foul of the Constitution.
It was argued that the Bills violated South Africa’s obligation as a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption to maintain independent units to combat corruption.
Louis said ”time will tell” whether Motlanthe would take the request to heart.
”Whilst there is no definitive answer given, I am heartened by the assurance given. I just hope we are not being patronised,” he said.
In October, the Constitutional Court and the Cape High Court rejected urgent applications by Glenister to stop the two Scorpions Bills being put to the vote in Parliament.
The National Assembly then approved legislation to disband the unit, which was responsible for criminal investigations against African National Congress president Jacob Zuma and which caused police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi to be suspended.
It still has to be considered by the National Council of Provinces, signed by the president and then promulgated in the Government Gazette. – Sapa