The ANC are determined to destroy the most effective corruption-busting force in the country.

Doing away with the Scorpions will do incalculable damage to SA's criminal justice system.

It would destroy a great deal of our ability to tackle organised criminal activities .

All South Africans must join together to fight this short-sighted and disastrous decision which is purely motivated by political concerns.
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Death knell for Scorpions
By Angela Quintal
February 13 2008 at 06:21AM

President Thabo Mbeki survived opposition calls for his head in parliament on Tuesday, but it was a different story for the Scorpions, who were officially relegated to the dustbin.

Safety and security minister Charles Nqakula announced during the debate on the state-of-the nation speech that the Scorpions would be dissolved, in line with ANC policy.

It would be merged with the police organised crime unit, and a new specialised crime-fighting unit would be established instead, Nqakula said.

While the Scorpions have been waiting for the chop for months, the announcement that the police organised crime unit would be phased out, appeared to have taken both the SAPS and its unions off guard.




Spokespersons reacted with shock and were reluctant to comment last night, while the NPA and Scorpions' bosses could not be reached for their reaction.

Defending the ANC's change of heart on the Scorpions, Nqakula told MPs the ruling party was not being reckless "when it determines that the fight against organised crime requires a re-look and the better utilisation of the services the country has better to be able to deal with that scourge in a better co-ordinated manner under the aegis of single command and control point".

Dissolved

"The best investigators from the two units will be put together, under the SAPS, as a reconstructed organised crime fighting unit.

The Scorpions, in the circumstances, will be dissolved and the organised crime unit of the police will be phased out and a new amalgamated unity will be created," he said.

His announcement was calculated to take the sting out of the first day of the debate. However, opposition parties accused him of undermining parliament by making the announcement without it being discussed in committee.

Mbeki deliberately kicked for touch on the Scorpions in his speech on Friday, so as not to overshadow other aspects of his "business unusual" speech.

However, DA parliamentary leader Sandra Botha went for the jugular, saying that South Africans did not believe Mbeki any more.

The president had failed to deal with the real concerns of the nation and had presided over a state misused for the ANC's benefit and to ensure its hold on power, she said.

"There is a deep desire among South Africans to be rid of all the pervasive evidence of corruption, crime and collapsing infrastructure which invades our daily world.

"Ordinary South Africans want to have discipline in schools, functioning hospitals, safe streets for kids to play in, old people to be treated with dignity and police that can be trusted."

Botha said Mbeki could not be trusted. This related to the Jackie Selebi saga, particularly in the light of an affidavit by acting NPA head Mokotedi Mpshe "which seems to prove that the president has misled the nation on this issue".

Calling for a new person and new government to be at the helm, she formally tabled her party's notice of motion for parliament to be dissolved.

IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi warned that the country was in jeopardy and on a path to "slow self-destruction".

However, he cautioned against political opportunism and called for focus on the "real issues affecting our people which have not changed save for their having become worse".

Buthelezi said MPs had failed in their role to hold the executive accountable.

"We can only save our republic by doing what the constitution requires of us, which is not only for the judiciary to be independent, the police to be effective and our public service to be honest and motivated.

"But it is also for us as the legislative branch to become the powerhouse and real centre of policy formulation, legislative initiative and political accountability - which would indeed be 'business unusual' but necessary."

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said the nation was gripped by uncertainty and repeated his call for a national convention to deal with various national issues.

He also called for the appointment of an independent panel of experts to investigate the electricity crisis.

ID leader Patricia de Lille again called for political accountability, saying that it was long overdue.

"We fail to see how we can trust those who created the electricity crisis to also deliver us from it."


Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080213032353966C353336