Police to investigate Selebi

2008-10-20 18:42

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - The ANC in Parliament has thrown out the suggestion from the National Prosecuting Authority that the remaining five sensitive cases being handled by the Scorpions be finalised before the 30 staff members working on these cases are transferred to the police.

This means, according to Dianne Kohler-Barnard of the Democratic Alliance, that the case against the suspended national police commissioner Jackie Selebi would now be investigated by his own personnel.

"This is precisely what the DA predicted would occur as the ANC uses its majority muscle to push through comfortable decisions, and to take the heat off of its own members," Kohler-Barnard said on Monday.

"It is utterly appalling to sit through the ripping apart of a unit with a 94% conviction rate, and watch a lapdog replace a bulldog."

She also complained that there was no guarantee that Scorpions special investigators would be utilised as investigators once they had been absorbed into the police, instead of being given irrelevant positions within the police services.

"Indeed there are no guarantees at all about where they will be placed," she said.

"One of the more worrying clauses within these bills contains the provision that any special investigator who consents to be transferred to the SAPS will lose that title, and will be expected to accept the transfer without any guarantees about what position he or she will occupy.

"Already Scorpions members are contacting the DA on a daily basis, asking why no consideration was given to their extensive inputs in relation to the dissolution of the unit. Most Scorpions staff members are today putting their CVs out on the market."

She insisted that the DA vote against both the SA Police Service Amendment Bill and the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill.

"We will have no part in the destruction of one of the finest crime- fighting units this country has ever produced, and which has been the envy of law enforcement agencies the world over," she said.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)