South Africa – Under the Mbeki administration the need to combat corruption effectively was recognised. Between them, then Minister of Justice Penuel Maduna and then National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, came up with the idea of the Scorpions, a unit within the National Prosecuting Authority that was able to tackle corruption with zeal and independence.
The Directorate of Special Operations, to give the Scorpions their official title, was legislated, created, resourced and trained in the so-called troika methodology of corruption busting. This involved close co-operation between prosecutors, investigators and forensic experts.
The Scorpions did very well. Indeed, after receiving training from the appropriate experts in the FBI and at Scotland Yard they were able to mount investigations in a way that can accurately be described as acting without fear, favour or prejudice.
It was the Scorpions who brought former police chief and Interpol head, Jackie Selebi to book. A strategy to deal with corruption that works well enough to unseat a chief of police is a good one.
However, at its sea-change Polokwane conference in 2007 the ANC resolved that the Scorpions be dissolved as a matter of urgency and replaced with a unit within SAPS.
The self-same Gwede Mantashe candidly conceded to Helen Zille at the time that too many ANC politicians were receiving the unwanted attention of the Scorpions and that it was for this reason that they were to be disbanded.
The travelgate scandal and the unusual and less than legal fund-raising efforts of the ANC were too much for the conference to bear or abandon, the dissolution of the Scorpions was seen as the way to prevent such embarrassments in the future.
At the time attention was drawn by the official opposition to the need to protect prominent members of the governing alliance. “Besides the seven convicted criminals on the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), six NEC members are currently the subjects of on-going criminal investigations. At least two of these are under investigation by the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO)” the DA grumbled…
All too soon the Scorpions, despite valiant litigation to save them, were history and they were replaced by the Hawks, or Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation, a police unit.
Their work rate fell dramatically when compared with that of their predecessors. According to the annual reporting of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) the number of new investigations fell by 85%…
South Africa Today – South Africa News
