SA: Crime-fighting unit abolished
Posted by travelhouseuk on October 24, 2008
Parliament in South Africa has voted to abolish the country’s independent crime-fighting unit, the Scorpions. The body has been behind several high-profile political investigations, including a corruption probe against ruling party leader Jacob Zuma. He is expected to become president after polls next year.Opposition parties accuse the governing African National Congress of waging a political campaign against the unit. The parliamentary debate and vote had been seen as formalities, as the ANC had already spelled out plans to disband the Scorpions.
They followed a series of failed attempts by opposition parties and members of the public to save the body. The ANC-dominated parliament voted by a margin of about four to one to disband the Scorpions and create a new force of criminal investigators that will be integrated into the police.
Power struggle
The Scorpions unit has shaken South Africa’s political landscape in the last few years, probing and arresting several prominent politicians, according to the BBC.
Among those pursued were ANC former chief whip Tony Yengeni and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of ex-President Nelson Mandela.
The Scorpions also led an investigation against suspended police commissioner Jacki Selebi, who faces trial next year.
But observers said the unit, formally known as the Directorate of Special Operations, pushed its luck too far when it pressed corruption charges against Zuma.
That case was at the centre of a power struggle between Zuma and Thabo Mbeki, with Zuma’s allies accusing Mbeki’s supporters of using the Scorpions to stop his rival gaining power.
Mbeki stepped down as president after Judge Chris Nicholson suggested that he had interfered in the case against Zuma. The former president has strongly denied this and has appealed against the judge’s ruling.
