Publication: The Times Issued: Date: 2008-01-27 Reporter: Mpumelelo Mkhabela Reporter: Wisani wa ka Ngobeni

Zuma Probe was Beginning of The End

 

Publication 

The Times
Date

2008-01-27
Reporter Mpumelelo Mkhabela
Wisani wa ka Ngobeni

Web Link

www.thetimes.co.za



Unseated: Prosecutions boss Vusi Pikoli is on suspension

First Blood: Bulelani Ngcuka was the first prosecutions boss

They had ambitious plans to enhance their effectiveness in combating organised crime, particularly major syndicates, and to increase their staff complement in 2008.

Instead, the Scorpions are likely to spend the year packing up what has been the most successful anti-crime agency South Africa has ever had.

The Scorpions made a grand entry onto the crime-fighting scene in 1999.

Following the general election, Thabo Mbeki announced in his first State of the Nation address that "a special and adequately staffed and equipped investigation unit will be established urgently to deal with all national priority crimes, including police corruption".

The Scorpions made their debut in Guguletu, Cape Town, on September 1. The launch, according to the then Justice Minister Penuell Maduna's explanation to Parliament, "sent a compelling message that the actions of those who have made organised and violent syndicated crime their business, will no longer be tolerated".

Setting up the unit did not come cheap. The government has spent well over R2-billion on the unit since it was formed in 1999. In its first year of operation, the government pumped R149-million into the unit. The following year, the budget was increased to R210-million. Now the government budgets well over R370-million a year for the unit.

Initially, a lot of money was spent training more than 400 new recruits and acquiring the technology needed to conduct complex criminal investigations.

Since the unit wanted to attract top candidates, the salaries had to be good. Investigators earn between R200 000 and R500 000 a year.

In 1999, when 100 positions were advertised, the Scorpions received over 6 000 applicants. They could choose the cream of the crop and the new recruits were sent for specialised training overseas ­ half to Scotland Yard and the other half to the FBI training academy in Virginia, in the US.

On their return, these crime busters were given fancy black Golf GTIs with the imposing red and black logo on the sides, laptops and huge salaries.

In 2005, the National Prosecuting Authority spent R10- million on a new fleet of cars with modified engines . Their boss, Vusi Pikoli, who is on suspension, said at the time: "The typical Scorpions operative is young, educated and upwardly mobile. These new cars fit that image."

When members of the Scorpions rounded up drug manufacturers, smugglers and peddlers, they did so in style, giving the public confidence that the country would not be mortgaged to drug dealers and money launderers.

The television lights blazing at their crime scenes inspired public confidence that criminals were being nailed.

Makhosini Nkosi, a former NPA spokesman who attended several raids, said his best memories involved what were termed "sting operations", and the preparation that went with them. "We used to call it the DSO adrenaline diet," he said.

Nkosi said the Scorpions so inspired people that those who couldn't get any joy from the South African Police Service sent complaints to the unit.

He said the Scorpions were accused of using "Hollywood tactics" while the SAPS was never criticised for doing the same thing. Their style also prompted the Foundation for Human Rights to raise concerns. "The sting in the work of the Scorpions ought to be in its conviction rate and its ability to confront organised crime, not in its logo and branding," it said in a submission to the Khampepe Commission.

With conviction rates of about 80% and the prosecution of top business executives of Leisurenet, Saambou Bank, Fidentia as well as several high-profile political cases, the Scorpions' flamboyance was not without substance. Yet it was partly that flamboyance that sowed the seeds of their pending demise, just seven years after they revved their engines for the first time.

The unit was first headed by Frank Dutton, who reported to Bulelani Ngcuka, the then NPA head who had been deployed from the ANC's parliamentary benches.

As the Scorpions gained in public favour, they declined in the estimation of leading politicians. And their demise began in earnest when they launched a probe into allegations that then deputy president Jacob Zuma had solicited bribes from arms dealers.

The Scorpions (and, by extension, the NPA, which houses it) found themselves having to defend their integrity, dismissing claims that the Zuma investigation was motivated by a political plot.

The allegations were given impetus by Ngcuka's statement, on August 23 2003, that there was a prima facie case of corruption against Zuma, but he would not prosecute because the prospects of success were not strong enough.

The Scorpions soldiered on with their investigation, finally leading to the conviction of Zuma's financial adviser Schabir Shaik and Mbeki's decision to axe Zuma in June 2005.

Ironically, or coincidentally *2, the unit's demise comes as Mbeki's rule ends and Zuma's star rises as newly elected ANC president.

With acknowledgements to Mpumelelo Mkhabela, Wisani wa ka Ngobeni and The Times.


*1       There was a prima facie case of corruption. This means that charges should have been preferred as only a court is able to determine whether this evidence is strong enough for a conviction.

If the evidence was not strong enough for a conviction, then it would not be prima facie.

In a strictly legal sense, prima facie means that at face value the evidence is strong enough for formal charges and that the accused needs to effectively rebut.the evidence to prove his innocence by disprove the charges.

This logic is so simplistic that it is actually a tautology.


*2      As a result of.