Scorpions' future in doubt

2005-02-13 22:50

Johannesburg - A commissioner to investigate the possibility of incorporating the Scorpions into the South African police is to be appointed soon, President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday.

Speaking in an interview on SABC following his State of the Nation Address on Friday Mbeki said: "The decision was reached that we need a commissioner to look into this matter.

Presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said on Sunday that justice minister Brigitte Mabandla will make the announcement on the commissioner and the expected outcome of the investigation.

"We do not know if this person will come from the public service or outside the public service," he said.

The commissioner will determine the structure and what should happen to the elite law enforcement arm of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), he said.

Mabandla alluded to a possible incorporation of the Scorpions into the SAPS in the beginning of February when she introduced the NPA's new head, Vusi Pikoli, to his staff.

She said it was not a matter of moving the Scorpions to the police but of aligning the different law enforcement agencies.

"... it's not even about moving, it's about alignment," the minister said.

She said there had always been a concern that there should be collaboration among the country's law enforcement agencies.

Mbeki called the Scorpions to life shortly after his election in 1999 because of public perception that crime was out of hand, having sharply increased since the country's first democratic elections in 1994.

It was tasked with tackling top-level crimes with the specific aim of securing convictions.

But the Scorpions sailed into troubled waters last year.

A storm broke around the head of National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, the NPA's boss, who leveled corruption allegations against deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Ngcuka subsequently quit his job in May after what many believed was a political fallout.

The unit is also accused of fudging its high conviction rate because, unlike the police, they are allowed to choose the cases they investigate and there are no measures in place to keep them in check.

- SAPA