The future existence of the Scorpions was not up for discussion but the type of investigations they do was under review, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said yesterday.

Briefing journalists on the outcome of deliberations at the Cabinet lekgotla last week, Nqakula said the matter had "served" before the cabinet, which had decided to discuss the future location of the Scorpions.

A cabinet memorandum is still to be drawn up so that it can consider the proper place of the Scorpions.

Asked if the Scorpions would be shut down, Nqakula said: "Not the future existence of the Scorpions. As I say, it is what they do and what the police do vis a vis investigations. Not whether they will be closed down or not. That is not the discussion."

Nqakula said that when President Thabo Mbeki suggested a possible integration of the Scorpions into the police services last week, he was referring to the time when the matter had "served" before the cabinet.

Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi sparked confusion early this week saying that a review of the role of the Scorpions was under way.

She said the review was routine since the Scorpions had been around for about five years and this was not related to the controversy that erupted last week.

Issues being considered included the salary scales of the police and the Scorpions, and where to place prosecutors of the Scorpions were brought under the police department.

But the justice ministry, which is responsible for the Scorpions, and the Scorpions themselves, were not aware of any review. Nqakula said what the justice ministry and the Scorpions meant was that no cabinet memorandum had been issued so that the matter could be discussed by the cabinet.

The Democratic Alliance slammed Moleketi's "review" as "nothing less than a veiled threat" aimed at intimidating the Scorpions.

The unit and its head Bulelani Ngcuka are at the centre of a storm over the way it investigated allegations that Zuma had tried to solicit a R500 000 bribe from a company that successfully bid for part of the multi-billion rand arms procurement deal.

In his first comments on the Zuma investigation, Mbeki suggested last week that the Scorpions could be integrated into the SA Police Services because of "inherent" duplication. ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe also slammed Ngcuka's "Hollywood style".

Zuma has complained publicly - and to Mbeki - that he was "bitterly aggrieved" by his treatment at the hands of the Scorpions, charging that they had violated his constitutional rights "to dignity and procedurally fair administrative action" by consistently refusing to confirm that they were investigating him despite media reports over many months to this effect.

With acknowledgements to Charles Phahlane and the Cape Times.