Cosatu welcomes dissolution of Scorpions 14-02-08

 

COSATU welcomes dissolution of Scorpions

The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions welcomes the government's decision to dissolve the Directorate of Special Operations, better known as the Scorpions. This move is in line with the resolutions passed by both the COSATU 9th Congress and the ANC's Polokwane Conference. The government is to be congratulated for responding promptly to the voice of the majority of the people as expressed in those resolutions.

COSATU's concern has been that the Scorpions' existence as a branch of the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions blurred the necessary separation of functions between those investigating crime and those prosecuting the criminals. This led to the rights of individuals being compromised, and there was a growing tendency for officers to be diverted from the fight against crime to political campaigns against certain individuals.

As a separate 'elite' force they were not sufficiently subject to public accountability, but increasingly a law unto themselves.

The federation remains totally committed to the fight against crime, regardless of who the criminals are, particularly those involved in organised crime, which the Scorpions were supposed to be targeting. We do not believe that this fight will be compromised by incorporating the Scorpions' staff into the SAPS, and we shall be insisting that the united body intensifies the war on crime in a more co-ordinated way.

COSATU will continue to monitor the work of the SAPS and will speak out strongly against any abuse of human rights by its officers, as is still happening in the way the police have been violently over-reacting to recent trade unions protests. We shall also condemn any move to bring the Scorpions' bad habits, and political bias into the ranks of the SAPS.