President Thabo Mbeki has been challenged to reveal in court whether the Scorpions are currently investigating him *1 or any member of his Cabinet, their family, friends or associates.

This challenge is made by businessman Bob Glenister in an affidavit filed in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday in an attempt to stop the Scorpions from being shut down.

Glenister, CE of Johannesburg-based digital production company Telpro, is dragging Mbeki, Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Brigitte Mabandla and Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula to court. He has approached the court as an ordinary South African concerned that crime will increase if the Scorpions are closed down.

He advances seven reasons that their closure would be unconstitutional. The Constitution states that Cabinet members should not "expose themselves to any situation involving the risk of a conflict between their official responsibilities and private interests".

Glenister now wants to know from Mbeki whether he or any of his ministers are being scrutinised by the Scorpions.

The other six reasons why the Scorpions should not be shut down, drawn up by senior counsel David Unterhalter and advocate Alfred Cockrell on Glenister's behalf, are:

• closure would be arbitrary and not be rationally connected to a legitimate governmental purpose;
• it would violate Glenister's and other South Africans' rights to life, dignity, security of person and property, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights;
• it would violate the government's constitutional duty to "preserve the peace ... of the Republic" and "secure the well-being" of the people of the Republic";
• it would also breach Section 198(a), which provides that "national security must reflect the resolve of South Africans, as individuals and as a nation, to live as equals, to live in peace and harmony, to be free from fear and want and to seek a better life";
• it would violate the constitutional rights of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to exercise its functions without fear, favour or prejudice, read together with the NPA's right to have the power to institute criminal proceedings on behalf of the state; and
• the constitutional principle of accountability would be infringed.

Glenister has asked the Pretoria High Court to restrict Mbeki, Mabandla and Nqakula from initiating legislation that will "disestablish" the Scorpions, and has given them until March 26 to indicate whether they will oppose the application.

"Just call me a concerned citizen," Glenister said after serving papers on Mbeki and the ministers. "I believe our constitutional rights are being violated and Parliament is being undermined by this reckless desire to destroy a functioning institution. The mere act of initiating legislation to disband the Scorpions would mean that, come June, there won't be an agency left to merge with the police."

Glenister's application is the first attempt to save the Scorpions through the courts. Although it has been described by legal observers this week as a "long shot", it may prove significant in a number of aspects, notably in Mbeki's response to Glenister's assertion that the Scorpions are being shut down to protect African National Congress members from prosecution.

Glenister makes the application on behalf of himself, 28 288 people who have signed an online petition to save the Scorpions and the public at large.

"Any legislation that results in the disbanding of an effective crime-fighting unit [such as the Scorpions] constitutes, in my opinion, a substantial and direct threat to the survival and growth of the economy, and hence, a direct and substantial threat to my interests as a businessman," his affidavit reads.

With acknowledgements to Adriaan Basson and Mail and Guardian.