NCOP passes Scorpions bills

2008-11-19 22:32

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - The National Council of Provinces on Wednesday passed the bills which will amalgamate the Scorpions into the police.

They were supported overwhelmingly by the government and opposed universally by the other parties. The figures were 29 votes in support and 9 against.

That is not quite the end of it, however. Before the select committee on security and constitutional affairs approved the bills, they made a few small changes to them, so those changes now have to go back to the National Assembly for concurrence.

If the bills are to go before the president for signature before Christmas they will have to go before the Assembly almost instantly. There are at present only two days left on which to do that before members go back to their constituencies or homes for the Christmas break - Thursday and Friday of this week.

The debate in the NCOP was notably noisy and heated, and at one stage an ANC member allowed himself to say that the Scorpions had to go because they deliberately offered plea bargains to overseas criminals in order to undermine the stability of the government.

Eventually the debate was calmed by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Enver Surty, whose emollience took the sting out of the debate.

Surty told members that the Scorpions had done a good job of prosecutor-led investigation of organised crime and corruption.

But he also pointed out the police investigating financial crimes also had the support of dedicated prosecutors, and their conviction rate compared well with the Scorpions at around 90%.

He also said that there was no evidence that investigators from the Scorpions were resigning in droves.

Since he had been a minister, the national director of public prosecutions told him that no member has approached him wanting to quit.

In any case, he said, no one will be forced to join the police. The whole of the rest of the civil service would be open to them.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)