The Democratic Alliance (DA) are eager to have the Scorpions revived.
The party would table a constitutional amendment for the establishment of it, he said.
“If this entity is positioned in Chapter 9 of the constitution and identified as being critical to the rule of law in our country, it will require the support of at least 75% of members of parliament to be disbanded should it be deemed central to the rule of law,” said party president John Steenhuisen.
“We strongly believe this institution must be set up to fortify it against political manipulation by this government or even a future government and prevent politicians from disbanding it when it does its work, like seen with the Scorpions that was abolished by a majority vote in parliament.”
Political analyst Goodenough Mashego said the DA’s talk of a Chapter 9 institution ran contrary to crime fighting.
Mashego said it was important to understand that the first Scorpions were not a Chapter 9 institution.
The Directorate of Special Operations, commonly known as the Scorpions, was a specialised unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), tasked with investigating and prosecuting high-level and priority crimes, including organised crime and corruption.
It was formally disbanded in January 2009 and replaced by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks).
“They were an investigating arm that was not attached to the police but also were not Chapter 9. It was a crime-fighting unit,” Mashego said.
When looking at the “basket of Chapter 9 institutions”, there were enough institutions to fulfil what the DA wanted to happen, he said.
“If they want to talk about combating corruption, they should be talking about capacitating existing structures, like the Hawks, or enable the Hawks to be more independent of the SA Police Service (Saps).
“Which is why the Scorpions were independent of the Saps as they were working closely with the NPA.”
Mashego said the DA needed to focus on the independence of any investigations arm.
Source: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/da-scorpions-2-anti-corruption-unit/
Content created and supplied by: LeahWrites (via Opera
News )
