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Cosatu praises Scorpions move
14/02/2008 20:39 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The Congress of SA Trade Unions has welcomed the government's decision to dissolve the Directorate of Special Operations, also known as the Scorpions.
Spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Thursday: "This move is in line with the resolutions passed by both the Cosatu ninth congress and the ANC's Polokwane conference.
"The government is to be congratulated for responding promptly to the voice of the majority of the people as expressed in those resolutions."
He said Cosatu's concern had been that the Scorpions' existence as a branch of the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions blurred the necessary separation of functions between those investigating crime and those prosecuting the criminals.
This led to the rights of individuals being compromised - and there was a growing tendency for officers to be diverted from the fight against crime to political campaigns against certain individuals.
He said that, as a separate 'elite' force, they were not sufficiently subject to public accountability, but increasingly a law unto themselves.
Intensifying the war on crime
"The federation remains totally committed to the fight against crime, regardless of who the criminals are, particularly those involved in organised crime, which the Scorpions were supposed to be targeting.
"We do not believe that this fight will be compromised by incorporating the Scorpions' staff into the SAPS, and we shall be insisting that the united body intensifies the war on crime in a more co-ordinated way."
He said Cosatu would continue to monitor the work of the police and would speak out strongly against any abuse of human rights by its officers.
Craven said the police had violently over-reacted to recent trade unions' protests.
Cosatu would condemn any move to bring the Scorpions' "bad habits" - and political bias - into the ranks of the SAPS, he said.
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