20 November 2008
Justice Minister Enver Surty says he has been told that about 80 percent of Scorpions investigators will move over to the new unit to be created under the police - the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).
Surty said no investigator would be forced to transfer to the DPCI and that the provisions of the Labour Relations Act will be strictly observed in managing the transfer of staff.
He was speaking in the National Council of Provinces on Wednesday, where the two bills that provide for the crushing of the Scorpions and the creation of the DPCI were approved.
Minor amendments made by the NCOP must now be approved by the National Assembly, which is expected to pass the bills on Friday.
Surty said Scorpions members could exercise the choice to remain with the National Prosecuting Authority or move elsewhere in the public service.
"This is not about removing skills and capacity," he said. "We want them to carry out their task without fear, favour or prejudice."
Surty was speaking after opposition MPs described the passage of the bills as a "tragic saga" in which the citizens of the country would be the losers, with one delegate warning that South Africans would "take their revenge" when they went to the polls next year.
The DA's Wilhelm le Roux said killing off the Scorpions was driven by political, rather than legal or rational imperatives.
"The effect of the legislation is to deprive the NPA of the means of investigating organised crime without fear or favour.
"The effect will be to place certain people above the law," he said.
The breakaway Congress of the People (COPE) plans to capitalise on outrage over the decision to disband the Scorpions to help it at the polls.
Cope leadership yesterday suggested that if the elections are held early, as is expected, it may be possible to save the elite crime-fighting unit.
Philip Dexter, COPE's national spokesperson on policy, said yesterday that if it depended on them, the Scorpions would not be dissolved. He said if an early election was indeed called then "it gives us time" (to prevent the unit's dissolution).
"The Scorpions will not be dissolved, even if the acts are promulgated," said Dexter about the policy position the fledgling party has provisionally adopted.
"We know what the public wants on the Scorpions," he said about the thousands of submissions that Parliament had received from South Africans angered by the ANC's decision to kill off the specialised investigation unit.
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