The Khampepe Commission, under Judge Sisi Khampepe, told Parliament to keep the DSO under the NPA. The Cabinet endorsed that report and its recommendations in June 2006. But when the reality of that ruling became apparent, the country then learned to its horror that when reality doesn't suit the ANC, it thinks it can overrule a Judge.
On the 11th of February this year the then Minister chose to announce that he would be disbanding the Scorpions - something he had chosen not to tell the hundreds of staff members of that unit, so that they heard on the news that their jobs were to be terminated. And terminated they will be, as they are having to apply to see if the ANC thinks they're good enough to belong to the SAPS.
They are advocates, forensic auditors, specialist investigators - none of whom ever wished to be in the police - and, after hearing the sneering tones used at SAPS head office in Pretoria when their members were referred to - ably encouraged by the Hon. Maggie Sotyu - well - they won't go. Law enforcement agencies all over the world are utterly delighted that these experts are on the market and will no doubt snap them up.
The fact that the Director General of Justice toured the country telling Scorpions members that they would be allowed no promotion within the SAPS for the next five years has only fuelled their fears.
Of course the whole country heard the heads of the Justice and the Safety & Security Committees state at a press conference on the 30th July, before this process had even begun, that the decision to disband this unit had already been taken, that Parliament must implement Polokwane, and that the 98 000 signatures and 7 978 written submissions we hand-delivered to them were irrelevant as they didn't represent the ‘right constituency' - so it's obviously true that the R2-million spent to tour the country with so-called Provincial hearings was, indeed, just a means of electioneering on the taxpayer's back.
You have in the process created and fabricated enmity both towards the Scorpions and between the SAPS and the Scorpions where none previously existed. You even ignored completely the request that the 30 relevant staff members working on the last five cases be allowed to take those cases through to court before the SAPS absorbed them.
You also know that the committees have failed to comply with rule 243(1)(c)(iii) of the National Assembly Rules, as the cost implications of both the dissolution of the DSO and the creation of the DPCI have not even begun to be adequately addressed.
No matter what you do, Travelgate can't be erased; nor can the Arms deal. No one can shield any South African citizen from investigation and prosecution. The six members of your NEC convicted by them know that.
The Directorate of Special Operations - the Scorpions - is but one of the units under the auspices of the National Prosecuting Authority - an authority that is instructed by our Constitution to exercise that authority without fear, favour or prejudice.
Yet the highly qualified DSO men and women - people who have given nine years of their lives dedicating themselves to tackling some of the most complex criminal investigations imaginable, taking them to court and winning 94% of them - well how, as a country have we thanked them for this selfless dedication to ensuring that right wins over might?
Members of the ANC, as they began their election campaigning during the provincial hearings, came out en masse with the most preposterous, self-serving, statements imaginable. I noted them carefully: "our women are still being raped - so scrap the Scorpions"; "our homes are still being broken into - so scrap the Scorpions"; "there is still child abuse - and trouble at the taxi ranks - so scrap the Scorpions".
I also noted that there was never a call to scrap the SAPS, which of course should have been dealing with these matters. Theatrical tones of disgust were used in describing the troika principle - with the prosecutor leading the investigators, which system results in such successes in court - despite the fact that exactly the same system is used, a lot less effectively, by the SAPS.
One ANC branch head even claimed that Scotland Yard ran the Scorpions. The ANC is still perpetuating the ‘single police force' determination argument - attempting by repetition to overrule both the Khampepe Commission and Constitutional Court dicta (Minister of Defence v Potsane 2002 (1) SA 1 which absolutely allow for different divisions to be established to protect this country.
As this country watched the Malema-isation of our politics, his followers stated, amongst other fabrications, that members of the Scorpions were Apartheid era criminals; not true...actually there are members of MK within their ranks - and Willy Hofmeyer who has served this country so well, even as an ANC MP, came to us and calmly and logically refuted every one of those claims, and pointed out that the original difficulties the DSO had, had been sorted out internally three years ago.
The unit's successes speak for themselves as they were the first in this country to convict financial directors of fraud, to tackle major international corporate raiding, to register money-laundering and racketeering convictions. They made the Brett Kebble murder arrests; confiscated drugs to the value of R600-million; broke the platinum and abalone smugglers syndicates; they ran Travelgate - many of you here are intimately familiar with that; and yes - they jailed Schbir Shaik and Tony Yengeni - and yes they are the ones who investigated the Selebis, Agliottis and Zumas, and the extraordinary Fidentia case.
Given these successes, the question has to be asked - before unleashing their dogs of war - why did the ANC not sit with them and ask the questions? Why couldn't the then Ministers of Justice and Safety and Security manage to put aside their personal differences like adults, sit down, listen to the DSO heads, and deal with the situation as they had been ordered to via an Inter-Ministerial Committee that simply never met? Why did the Justice Committee fail provide oversight in this matter?
Because of Ministerial personality clashes - and I made this claim during the interminable hours I've been forced to sit in a room with Honourable Yunis Carrim - he agreed - if they had just done their job we wouldn't be wasting our time here today, we wouldn't be considering diminishing our ability as a crime-fighting nation by even contemplating scrapping - not transferring, Minister - scrapping, one of the finest, globally admired crime fighting units this country has ever created.
If you believe that this country's official opposition will stand by and be silent, as Johnny de Lange would like us to do when our members are hacked almost to death by your members, you're in for many disappointments during what may well be your extremely short tenure in office.
That's one of the lessons the ANC as a liberation movement has never learned as it has attempted to transmogrify into a political party. Merely saying something does not make it true, and merely destroying a unit does not make the evidence disappear, and merely claiming that someone is innocent does not make that a reality.
We have to leave this country with the checks and balances that will ensure that the next Selebi is investigated; that we have someone left to police our Police. Let's hope those of you leaving the ANC - all 50 of you - will vote with us against this absurd legislation.
Speech by Dianne Kohler Barnard, MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on safety and security, National Assembly, Cape Town, October 23 2008
