Parliament: Scorpions will be dissolved

[Necuno]

well well well; end is neigh

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-07-30-parliament-scorpions-will-be-dissolved

Elite South African crime-fighting unit the Scorpions, which have been accused by the African National Congress of abusing their power in political cases, will be dissolved, a parliamentary committee said on Wednesday.

The FBI-style Scorpions have been living on borrowed time since Jacob Zuma beat President Thabo Mbeki for the leadership of the ANC in December. Zuma's camp accused the Scorpions of engaging in a plot to smear and deny Zuma the ANC top job.

The ruling party later approved a resolution calling for the dissolution of the Scorpions, and Mbeki reluctantly agreed. The matter is now before Parliament, which is dominated by the ANC.

"We are going to dissolve the Scorpions," Maggie Sotyu, the ANC chairperson of Parliament's portfolio committee on safety and security, said at a press conference in Cape Town.

She added that Parliament's job was to "implement the policies of the ruling party".

Mbeki's decision to approve the dissolution of the Scorpions, officially known as the Directorate of Special Operations, has been criticised by the opposition, which fears it will increase corruption and other crimes.

The move faces a challenge in the Constitutional Court.

Established by Mbeki in 1999 to fight high-profile corruption cases, the Scorpions have scored successes against organised crime, despite seeing their reputation attacked as a result of a corruption investigation targeting Zuma.

The unit is not part of the police and reports to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The NPA in turn answers to South Africa's Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

DA condemns disbanding of Scorpions

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080730144643864C307453

he comments made during a briefing at parliament on Wednesday by the chairpersons of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development and the Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security displayed the ANC's complete and utter contempt for the legitimacy of public participation and the parliamentary processes involved in the drafting of legislation.

The decision to disband the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) by absorbing the unit into the SAPS was once again presented by the ANC as a fait accomplice, the implementation of which can not and will not be in any way swayed by public opposition to the move - however vast it may be.




The two committee chairs also deliberately misrepresented the number of members of the public who have voiced their opposition to the disbanding of the Scorpions, by cynically suggesting that signing petitions - either on paper or by email and SMS - does not represent a legitimate exercise in public submission, since it does not "suggest ways to improve upon the draft legislation".

More than 114 000 South Africans have either signed petitions, or made written submissions to the parliamentary committees processing the two bills that aim to see the Scorpions dissolved.

To the Chair-leaders of these committees, the submissions are irrelevant; they claim that since they express the simple fact that members of the public do not want to see the Scorpions disbanded, because those who have voiced their opposition to the move are in effect refusing to work within the bounds of a politically-motivated decision that the ANC took at Polokwane, their views hold no water and are invalid.

It is clear from public opinion that what is at stake here is the decision to disband the unit in the first place; not how this will be done. Nevertheless, Justice Chairperson, Yunus Carrim indicated that the ANC will continue to push this legislation through Parliament - even if the entire country opposes the move.

Safety and Security Chairperson, Maggie Sotyu further claims that only about 100 of the submissions she has received from the public are "acceptable".

The Democratic Alliance (DA) knows of more than 14 000 written submissions alone which have been made to Parliament with respect to the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill and the South African Police Services Amendment Bill.

Even more disturbing was the attempt by the committee chairs to cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the submissions received, based on race or party affiliation.

Carrim went so far as to say that the submissions held no weight because, according to his own unsubstantiated assessment, they come from "a particular section of society".

The DA was unaware that only some opinions were valid in this matter. We were under the impression that parliament, as a representative of all South Africans, affords equal value to the views of every citizen.

The next coming Tuesday, 5 August 2008, during the first in the series of public hearings on the Scorpions legislation at Parliament, the DA will request that the chairperson furnish the committee with information about the exact number of submissions that have been received from the public.

Should we detect any significant discrepancy between that figure and the number of South Africans that we are aware have made submissions, we will pursue every avenue at our disposal in order to ensure that every single submission and every single name on every petition is recorded - failing which we will petition the Speaker of the National Assembly to intervene in the matter.

The DA will continue to do everything possible to ensure that South Africans' views are heard on this decision - upon which there is clear agreement amongst the vast majority, regardless of their race or political affiliation: the Scorpions must be retained in their current form. -Sapa

 

[The Cosmos]

All the DA do is condemn. It's stating the obvious, but they've really proved to be no opposition at all. The disbanding of the scorpions is just to further crime.

 

[BTTB]

Déjà vu

Feels like déjà vu for me with all things Government related.
Public are invited to workshop and discuss issues, but for all intense and purposes the end result has already been decided.

Of course the wheel turns in the bigger scheme of things as now the Scorpions Unit won't be around any more to protect anyone for that matter including the ruling party.

 

[lilGr]

Gosh this country is going downhill , taking away like our most specialized crime unit FTL.

 

[BTTB]

Scorpions go in spite of ‘populism’ — ANC

Scorpions go in spite of ‘populism’ — ANC

Despite vowing that Parliament would pass legislation to scrap the Scorpions, senior African National Congress (ANC) MPs yesterday rejected suggestions that a planned campaign of public consultation was a charade designed to keep them out of the Constitutional Court.

Like many other workshops Government Departments invite us to attend they turn out to be nothing more than a legal process needed to Rubber-stamp the decision/s already made. Procedural stuff in other words. And if you attend the workshop you inadvertently are seen as part and parcel of the process, even if it is not what you wanted.

Even the Public Protector is a waste of time in a matter like this as all they will say is that they will only enter the fray once all normal channels have been exhausted, which defeats the whole public process as once the process is over how could The Public Protector still be able to help? Been there, got the tee shirt.

Section 33: Just administrative action

This protects people against unlawful, unjust and unreasonable decisions from government officials or departments

 

[Koos Custodiet]

Like many other workshops Government Departments invite us to attend they turn out to be nothing more than a legal process needed to Rubber-stamp the decision/s already made. Procedural stuff in other words. And if you attend the workshop you inadvertently are seen as part and parcel of the process, even if it is not what you wanted.

In this case they might just have shot themselves in the foot, since the deadline for written submissions is today, and the oral submissions are what? Next week sometime?

One thing throwing away 380 000 signatures and claiming the public was consulted (what they did with the Firearm Control Act), another thing claiming that the public was consulted two weeks before the actual hearings...