Marching Orders: A South African Police Service VIP Protection Unit member tells Scorpions members to leave Jacob Zuma's Forest Town residence during a raid by the Scorpions in 2005

The ANC has decided to disband SA's most successful crime-fighting unit by June. Their acting chief, Mokotedi Mpshe, warned members in a recent letter that their demise was now inevitable. The Sunday Times looks at the unit's rise and fall

Parliament will not unconditionally ratify the ANC decision to disband the Scorpions , Justice committee chairman Yunus Carrim has warned.

"The disbanding of the Scorpions has to serve to strengthen, not weaken, the fight against organised crime and corruption," he said in an interview this week.

The ANC's National Executive Committee has "instructed" Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla to override the recommendations of the 2005 Khampepe Commission and draft a new Bill to disband ­ rather than reorganise ­ the Scorpions.

Before the December conference, Mabandla presented a draft National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill to ANC MPs. It sought to implement the commission's recommendation that the Scorpions report to the minister of Safety and Security rather than the minister of Justice .

The commission was appointed by Thabo Mbeki in April 2005 to consider whether it was right to locate the Scorpions within the NPA with a reporting line to the minister of Justice, or whether the unit should be incorporated into the police and required to report to the national commissioner and the Safety and Security minister.

There "appears to be no legal impediment in having a structure such as the DSO (Directorate of Special Operations, the Scorpions' formal name) with all the disciplines it has falling under one ministry... there is nothing jurisprudentially unsound in conferring law enforcement responsibilities to any agency other than the SA Police Service," Khampepe said.

The ANC National Conference in Polokwane last year rejected the Khampepe recommendation , insisting that the unit be dissolved and that members who perform police function should "fall under the SAPS".

Now Mabandla must table a radically different Bill.

"She was told in no uncertain terms that this has to happen," said an NEC member.

The Scorpions have not given up hope. A source said efforts were under way to find "sane voices in the ANC who recognise the importance of the unit".

At the very least, the former Scorpions want to stay together wherever they are sent.

Carrim's committee and the Safety and Security committee will have to rush legislation through Parliament if the legislature is to meet the ANC's June deadline for disbanding the elite anti-crime unit that has become the bane of some party leaders .

Carrim said Mabandla would have to release the Bill by the end of March if MPs were to have any chance of meeting the deadline.

And it would have to put the fight against crime first, he added.

"A question that will have to be addressed (by Parliament) is what specialised structure, with the necessary powers, within the SAPS , will specifically tackle organised crime and how it will co-operate with the National Prosecuting Authority .

"It has to be located in terms of the overall restructuring of the criminal justice system, which needs to be far more efficient and effective," he said.

If the Scorpions are disbanded , there will be no unit specifically dedicated to fighting organised crime or high-value economic crime.

Prosecutors and investigators fighting to retain specialised capacity in the police service hope to persuade the police to keep the Scorpions staff together, but they fear the agenda is different.

"The sense in the NPA is that they want to break up the Scorpions completely and send the investigators out to stations. They want to utterly destroy it," said a source close to the process.

Amendments to the NPA Act would be accompanied by an amendment of the SAPS Act to be processed by Parliament's Safety and Security portfolio committee, Carrim said.

"Obviously, there will be public hearings, and organisations and individuals will be given a full opportunity to have their say. The hearings will be held within three weeks of the Bills being introduced to Parliament," he said.

He said it was to be hoped that the public hearings would " help to create better understanding of the broader reasons for the legislation and greater consensus at least on how to manage the process" .

Opponents hoping to halt the process warned that public hearings based on a decision already made in non-government ANC structures could fail a constitutional test.

Carrim said Parliament and the public service also would have to make adequate arrangements for the transfer of staff from the Scorpions .

"Obviously, there will be major practical issues to address in integrating members of the Scorpions into the SAPS, including the differing salaries and conditions of service, but discussions on some of these issues can begin reasonably soon in anticipation of the pending legislation."

With acknowledgements to Mpumelelo Mkhabela and The Times.