Roughly a year ago President Thabo Mbeki mused for the first time publicly about the possibility of relocating command of the elite Scorpions unit from the national prosecuting authority to the police. The rumours gained traction last week, with reports that just such a move was being planned. These plans may or may not transpire, but once again we would caution against such a step, at least at this critical juncture.

In theory, investigatory and prosecutorial functions should be separate. The enthusiasm that investigators, normally the police, have for their cases ought to be subject to an internal check by a sceptical institution. In ordinary practice, this important function, which acts as a reality check, takes place when investigators submit their cases to the prosecuting authority for consideration. The job of the prosecuting authority is not only to assess whether the accused is guilty as a matter of fact, but to decide whether this guilt is provable in court according to the appropriate legal standard. The prosecutorial authority must, in other words, weigh not only the legal merits of the case, but the likelihood of a successful prosecution.

Without this check, it is more likely that innocent victims could get caught up in the nightmare of extended and ultimately unsuccessful legal proceedings.

Critics of the Scorpions claim is exactly what has transpired too often. The argument theoretically gains weight following the decision to strike off the roll the fraud case against miner Roger Kebble.

It must be noted, however, that for proponents of this argument, the Kebble case is a poor example. This case was not in fact brought by the Scorpions, but was essentially a commercial crimes unit matter. In addition, the police were crucially let down by a change of heart of one of the key witnesses.

Yet even if it is accepted that the Scorpions have been zealous in the vigorous pursuit of prosecutions, with their much-derided "cowboy" style, wasn't this exactly why they were established? The Scorpions unit was set up because the perceived problem at the time was that in the balance between risking prosecution of the innocent and failing to prosecute the guilty, the tilt was distinctly toward the latter.

That remains the case today. The Scorpions were established in order to fill a gap in the full spectrum of policing, since it seemed that white-collar criminals were successfully slipping through the legal net. The police were proving adept at fighting street crime (although whether they are in fact is an argument in itself), but not at apprehending large-scale technical crimes.

In fact, it panned out rather differently. The Scorpions quickly found that the biggest problem they faced was not from money laundering or insider trading, but from corruption. Corruption has always been an endemic problem in SA, and one that has seldom been acknowledged. But it is also politically the trickiest since politicians and administrators are so often on one or other side of corrupt practice.

The issue of overzealousness pales into insignificance compared to the problems the Scorpions have encountered from the fact that they have not shied away from investigating difficult cases which have involved politicians. And their successes have in general been much less obvious than their failures.

Mbeki noted at the time he spoke about relocating the Scorpions that conflicts with the ordinary police needed to be sorted out. But given the nature of the Scorpions' recent investigations, the problem is that shifting the organisation now will be seen as a political move.

It will be perceived as a kind of official disapproval from on high of the investigation of Deputy President Jacob Zuma and parliamentarians involved in the Travelgate issue, for example.

Even if there was an argument in favour of shifting the Scorpions, now would be the worst possible time to entertain it.

With acknowledgement to the Business Day.