Police and National Intelligence Agency leaders appear to be waging a war of attrition against the National Prosecuting Authority and the Scorpions.
Metro police officers will continue their protest outside their Johannesburg headquarters on Thursday while union bosses meet with city management.
Protesting metro police officers fired live ammunition at South African Police Service (SAPS) members in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
The disbanding of the Scorpions will protect corrupt and criminal politicians from prosecution, the deputy director of Public Prosecutions warned on Thursday. The Directorate of Special Operations, also known as the Scorpions, would lose its ability to independently investigate government officials if it was incorporated into the police, said Billy Downer, SC.
The recent xenophobic violence cannot be attributed to a single factor and is not necessarily the work of a so-called ”third force”, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday. ”In some cases, there is some evidence of copy-cat activities in which criminals took advantage of the news story to conduct criminal acts,” he said.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the South African Police Service are hard at work repairing their relationship ahead of a planned merger with the Scorpions, NPA acting head Mokotedi Mpshe said on Wednesday. ”We’re focusing primarily on salvaging whatever relations there are,” Mpshe told reporters in Johannesburg.
The seven students expelled from the Mafikeng Campus of the North-West University (NWU) have been granted permission to continue with studies and examinations. Spokesperson Lester Mpolokeng said the seven students either expelled or suspended from the university would remain provisionally suspended.
A Somali community in Johannesburg on Thursday accused police of firing live ammunition at its members as more xenophobic attacks were reported in Gauteng and former Cabinet minister Kader Asmal questioned claims of ‘third force’ involvement in the attacks.
The deployment of the army to areas hit by xenophobic attacks was long overdue, opposition parties said on Wednesday after President Thabo Mbeki’s nod to South African National Defence Force ”involvement”. South African police say 42 people have been killed in violence in Johannesburg that has raged for more than a week and 16Â 000 have been displaced.
Thousands of refugees in and around Johannesburg faced another night filled with anxiety on Tuesday evening as xenophobic tensions and violence continued to spread through the province. The violence has so far claimed 24 lives and left up to 10Â 000 people seeking refuge in shelters across Gauteng.
As the sun set on another bloody day of xenophobic violence in Gauteng on Monday, at least 22 people were reported dead, many more injured and 217 arrested for fierce attacks on both foreigners and local residents living in the greater Johannesburg area. Aid organisations were assisting thousands of refugees at civic centres and police stations.
Private security companies should be given more powers so that they could contribute meaningfully to the fight against crime, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. DA spokesperson on safety and security Dianne Kohler Barnard said private security companies should be granted the same powers as the police when carrying out arrests and seizures.
Bedlam erupted in the Kempton Park Regional Court on Thursday when three men accused of possession of illegal firearms staged a dramatic escape. The escape took place when the three suspects were taken to the court’s holding cells, presiding magistrate Eric Mhlari told the Mail & Guardian Online on Friday.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that the Bill abolishing the Scorpions and amalgamating them into a police directorate will dramatically undermine the fight against crime, and against organised crime in particular. ”As such, the DA will do all in its power to ensure that the Bill does not become law,” the party said on Wednesday.
The Directorate of Special Operations, or the Scorpions, had another nail hammered into its coffin on Tuesday, with the tabling of the General Laws Amendment Bill in the National Assembly. The draft legislation, now headed for the committee stage, provides for the establishment of a new division in the South African Police Service.
The Law Society of South Africa on Friday called for an overhaul of the justice system to deal with crime in the country. Co-chairpersons Vincent Saldahna and CP Fourie said the scourge of crime needed a more holistic and serious solution, which included the proper training of police officers.
The majority of South Africans want the Scorpions to remain as a separate entity from the police, TNS Research Surveys said on Wednesday. Fifty-nine percent of South Africans said they felt the Scorpions should be separate in a survey conducted in February 2008 among 2 000 people.
An investigation into two northern KwaZulu-Natal men who were caught monitoring police radio frequencies has been launched, police said on Tuesday. Police spokesperson Captain Charmaine Struwig said the pair were caught on Newcastle Road in Ladysmith on Monday night but had not yet been arrested.
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 existence of the Scorpions is ”as valid today as it was at conception”, says the Khampepe report released on Monday. ”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,” states the report.
In the samba spirit that the South African Football Association seems to have been seized by, and to welcome Joel Santana, the Brazilian coach, South Africans now have an opportunity to convert their names to Brazilian ones. After all, one Brazilian turn deserves another.
A plan to reduce the impact of rising food prices on the poor was tabled during an ordinary meeting of the Cabinet in Pretoria on Wednesday. The proposed short-, medium- and long-term interventions were also aimed at ensuring household and national food security, the Government Communication and Information System said in a statement.
South Africa’s international land borders are as porous as the proverbial sieve, with tens of thousands of refugees streaming into the country each week, alongside gun-smugglers and drug-traffickers, says the Democratic Alliance (DA). The party called for the deployment of South African National Defence Force troops to the worst-affected border regions,
Legal counsel for Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride on Monday asked the Pretoria Regional Court to compel the state to hand over all documents containing statements made against him. This included a statement not related to the drunken-driving case before the court.
The case against Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, relating to drunken-driving charges, started briefly in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday before being stood down again. State prosecutors told magistrate Peet Johnson that they were ready to proceed but that McBride’s defence team wanted to bring an application.
Opposition to a shipment of arms being offloaded in Durban and transported to Zimbabwe increased on Thursday when South Africa’s largest transport workers’ union announced that its members would not unload the ship. A government spokesperson said the country could not stop the shipment from getting to its destination.
The South African Police Service’s explosives unit confirmed on Wednesday that an uncleared Chinese vessel docked at the outer anchorage of Durban harbour was carrying arms. Leonard Hadebe, head of Durban customs, said: ”We have confirmed that the shipment was headed for Zimbabwe.”
The fate of the Scorpions will be discussed at a meeting between African National Congress (ANC) general secretary Gwede Mantashe and Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille, the DA said on Monday. The opposition leader called for a meeting with the ANC after a decision was taken to ”dissolve” the Scorpions and incorporate them into the police.
It is possible that the crime-fighting Scorpions may not be incorporated into the South African Police Service by June, African National Congress national executive committee Siphiwe Nyanda said on Thursday. He was speaking at a seminar hosted by the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.
An estimated three to five million refugees have fled to South Africa in recent years, where they are anxiously waiting the results of their home country’s presidential poll. The <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> spoke to several refugees about their plans for the future, depending on the full election outcome.
At least 2 100 volunteers will be recruited and trained in KwaZulu-Natal by police officers from the United Kingdom to build up a front against crime before the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Project coordinator Nhlakanipho Mahlaba said that R35-million had been allocated for the ”volunteer social crime prevention project”.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille on Monday again asked African National Congress president Jacob Zuma for a meeting to discuss the Scorpions’ future. ”In a press interview published on the weekend, Jacob Zuma declared that he is willing to ‘debate anything’ — even the future of the Scorpions,” said Zille.