Where crime is a way of life

Where crime is a way of life
Aug 08 2008 11:37

The African National Congress (ANC) has defended its stance on the disbanding of the Scorpions, saying the unit was guilty of "serious violations of the Constitution and the rule of law".

ANC national executive committee member Siphiwe Nyanda maintains that the Scorpions used operatives who had not obtained appropriate security clearances and, as such, compromised the security interests of South Africa and its citizens.

He also this week accused the Scorpions of "media-driven operations" and said that despite a judge's finding that the unit had exceeded its legal mandate, there has been a "clamour" that it be allowed to continue.

While Nyanda may have a point, is it really necessary to pack up the whole unit? Could safeguards not be put in place to address the ANC's concerns? Or is it a matter of public perception -- we're told this is our one supremely powerful weapon against high-profile criminals, and now we're being asked to accept that the country can do without it.

The Scorpions could also perhaps have dealt more diplomatically with some of their high-profile cases, so avoiding the criticism of "Hollywood-style" raids.

By contrast, the Democratic Alliance's Dianne Kohler-Barnard said the disbandment was a political decision, "taken by the ruling party to protect its leaders from any further criminal investigations". She said it was "absolute madness to even consider destroying the one unit that was a shining light in a sea of darkness".

The unit was launched with much fanfare on January 12 2001. This was our super-unit with FBI-like powers, and, we were told, it was going to take down powerful criminals beyond the reach of ordinary law enforcement agencies. Crucially, it combined prosecutors with special investigators, greatly improving the chances for successful prosecution.

Now Parliament is holding public hearings into the matter.

Justice committee chairperson Yunus Carrim is on record as saying: "If through these public hearings we establish that the overwhelming majority of South Africans want the Scorpions retained, we will take it seriously."

However, it was Carrim who said the disbandment was in the interests of improving the fight against crime and that "populism" would not be allowed to change things.

Business Day quoted him as saying that the ruling party was proud of the way in which it had stood by principle on the issues of the death penalty, abortion and same-sex marriages. He then tried to link these issues to the scrapping of the unit by saying that if public opinion had held sway in these three instances, they would not be part of South African law.

What the ANC wants, it gets, and the unit is all but dead in the water. A few high-profile busts, it probably reasons, and the public's opinion will be assuaged. This may all be very well, but South Africans are keenly attuned to crime, being, as it is, a way of life, and it seems a pity that we're losing the one unit that seemed to be securing successful prosecutions.

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COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE

Why will criminals ever disband crime and take away their rights to "redistribution of wealth?"