Survey: Leave Scorpions alone
19/03/2008 21:49  - (SA)  

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Johannesburg - South Africans want the National Prosecuting Authority's Scorpions to exist separately from the police service, a survey released on Wednesday found.

This came as government moved to disband the unit of crack investigators.

Of 2 000 people polled in seven metropolitan areas, 59% agreed with the statement: "The Scorpions should be separate from the police."

Only 26% of those surveyed disagreed, while 12% said they did not know.

Capetonians were most adamant that the unit remain independent of the SAPS, followed by Gauteng - with the least in agreement residing in Bloemfontein.

The survey was conducted in February, a month after Safety and Security Minister Charles Ngakula placed before parliament a proposal to "dissolve" the Scorpions to form a new unit together with the SAPS' Organised Crime Unit.

The survey also comes on the heels of the ANC's Polokwane conference where a resolution was taken to incorporate the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) into the SA Police Service (SAPS).

TNS researcher Neil Higgs said the result of the poll indicated that the ruling party may be slightly "out of touch" with the way people really felt about the matter.

"It is interesting (the result) and it indicates that maybe the ANC is slightly out of touch with how people feel about the issue," he told Sapa.

The ANC set a June deadline for the elite crime-busting unit to be disbanded at its lekgotla in Midrand in January.

The announcement of the Scorpions demise sparked an outcry among opposition parties and civil society alike.

A Johannesburg businessman on Tuesday approached the Pretoria High Court to stop the process.

Hugh Glenister argued the disbanding of the unit would "not be rationally connected to a legitimate governmental purpose".

He said it would also be a violation of the government's constitutional obligations to initiate new legislation in a constitutionally admissible way and to uphold the rights of every South African to life, dignity, property and security.

Nqakula last month, however, assured South Africans that the disbanding of the unit remained only a "proposal" and would go to Parliament and include public participation.