Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2005-10-09 Reporter: Reporter:

Scorpions are Needed More than Ever

 

Publication 

Sunday Independent
Date

2005-10-09

Web link

 

From the traffic cop soliciting bribes to the office of the former deputy president, the stench of corruption threatens to pervade South Africa.

Along with Aids and poverty, corruption stands as one of the real threats to a democracy that, on many levels, astounds in its maturity after just 11 years of freedom from an utterly corrupt system of social engineering based on racism.

So, with this history of a corrupt political system behind us, but a new wave of corruption flourishing in many sectors of society, why are we now debating whether one of the country's top corruption-busting outfits, the Scorpions, should be disbanded?

Cries for its dismantlement have grown ever since the Scorpions first showed willingness to tackle corrupt luminaries, no matter what their standing in society or in the ANC.

The main argument now being presented for the absorption of these elite crime-fighters into the SA Police Service is that the two agencies clash with one another so acrimoniously that they cannot work together.

The Scorpions were formed to tackle serious crime at a time when criminal syndicates were seen to be growing in power, and the police seemed unable to stem the tide. The anti-Scorpions line now is that the war on crime is being won, and the Scorpions have had their time. Well, no matter what the recently released official crime statistics show, South Africa is still in the grip of a vicious and all-pervading crime wave, and we need every string in the state's and private sector's bows to fight it.

And this crime wave includes corruption - from the arms deal to bent town councillors who fiddle housing waiting lists, to uniformed officers of the state who regard the public as mobile ATMs to be preyed upon.

Not that the Scorpions have been without their own warts, and need to brush up on their own image. In the past they have leaked damaging allegations about individuals into the public domain without the evidence to back it up. They have conducted Hollywood-style raids in the glare of the media and most recently have raided offices and premises during the Zuma investigation on the strength of warrants apparently issued on the basis of misleading claims.

But, as counsel for the National Intelligence Agency, George Bizos, this week told the Khampepe commission of inquiry investigating the future of the Scorpions, disbanding the Scorpions would hamper the fight against crime.

We agree that, rather than being disbanded and incorporated into the police, the focus on the Scorpions should be to ensure that it has a structure that can work with other crime-fighting bodies.

As the saying goes, "great minds never think alike". That would be a little too generous to our crime-fighting bosses, but they have to be able to work together. For our good.

With acknowledgements to the Sunday Independent.