'Disbanding crime-fighting Scorpions was a blunder'

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Retired Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has stated that the Hawks, a crime-fighting unit, are not equipped for the task. He criticised the ANC's decision to disband the Scorpions.
Image: Picture: Timothy Bernard/Independent Newspapers
This week, former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo reignited an old debate by stating that the Hawks, a crime-fighting unit, are not equipped for the task. He criticised the ANC's decision to disband the Scorpions.
Speaking at the South African Council of Churches' national church leaders' anti-corruption conference in Johannesburg.
''In the early 2000s, we had the Scorpions, which were very effective in fighting corruption. The criminals had begun to fear them.'In 2007, at the ANC elective conference, a resolution was taken to disband them.
''And they were disbanded. The results are there for all of us to see what happened about the levels of corruption, because I don't believe the Hawks, which were said to have taken their place, are up to that job,' he was quoted by IOL.
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He said the State Capture Commission,​ which he chaired, in its report, refers to several cases that were lodged in 2017 by the board of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), which was chaired by Popo Molefe.
'We all know that corruption at Prasa has been there for ages, and nothing effective is being done. This board had gone to the Hawks and reported these criminal activities, and there were statements given.
''At the time of preparing the report of the (Zondo) Commission, in early 2022, which was about five years later, there was nobody who was arrested, and the Hawks said they were still investigating,' he added.
The Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), commonly known as the Scorpions, was a specialised unit of the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa formed by President Thabo Mbeki, tasked with investigating and prosecuting high-level and priority crimes, including organised crime and corruption.
The Scorpions pursued a "prosecution-led" approach or "troika model", meaning that investigators, forensic analysts, and prosecutors worked together on each case – investigators collected evidence for study by analysts, and both were directed by the needs of prosecutors in building a legally strong case.
However, this model was criticised for undermining "the separation of powers" between investigators and prosecutors.
Between 2005 and 2007, they initiated 368 investigations, completed 264, and prosecuted 214, with a conviction rate of 85%; during that period, they also seized R1 billion in assets and contraband worth R1 billion.
Political expert, Sandile Swana, agreed with Zondo that the dissolution of the Scorpions during the 2007 ANC conference was a blunder:
'''The Polokwane Conference was the opening of the floodgates of corruption. Now, whoever Zondo had been, the Sergeant General or the Professor of UCT, the Principal of UCT or anywhere else, the person of prominence, commenting on how we have allowed ourselves to be corrupted and accommodated corruption.
'''The Hawks were a defamed scorpion, a scorpion that had no teeth. And as we can see from the assertions by General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi now, the police as a whole is captured on the one hand by the mafia organised crime, on the other by politicians, and the policing in South Africa is ineffectual in any capacity whatsoever.''
Swana pointed the finger at the unions and churches, and the nation for not defending the Scorpions.
''So the public, those who were not part of the ANC factions, needed to rise. The South African Council of Churches, the civil society, all those, the unions, COSATU and others. Instead, they supported this dissolution."
A few months ago, African National Congress (ANC) stalwart and former premier of Limpopo, Stanley Mathabatha, made an admission about the Scorpions: 'The mistake was to destroy the good structures that we had established to exert the authority of the state, for example, the Scorpions. I still believe it was a fundamental mistake to do away with the Scorpions. I was there (at the Polokwane conference), hence I am owning up to the mistake,' Mathabatha was qouted by IOL.
Asked for comment on Zondo's remarks, ANC National Spokesperson, Mahlangu Bhengu, said: ''The ANC does not often respond to the views of retired members of the Judiciary. We believe there are checks and balances in place to address prosecutorial independence by established institutions, one of which is IDAC. ''
IDAC is the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption.​''We must continue to strengthen all three parts of the value chain in our criminal justice system, i.e, investigations, prosecutions and judicial work,'' she added.