Where are the Scorpions when we really need them?

28 August 2016 - 02:00 By Peter Bruce

If the creation of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) after Jacob Zuma came to power in 2009 tells us anything today, it is how much we miss its predecessor, the Scorpions. Instead of waiting for political instruction, the Scorpions did what they had to do to throttle corruption. Sometimes they overplayed their hand and hurt people and families unnecessarily. But for the most part they were feared for the one spine-chilling thing that mattered - they were independent.Remember the bogus and contemptible "public consultations", packed with ANC supporters, used to lend a veneer of respectability to the destruction of the Scorpions?And it wasn't just Zuma who wanted them destroyed. Hardly an ANC voice of any consequence was raised in protest.story_article_left1Imagine if outgoing public protector Thuli Madonsela as she packs up her office, had had the powers not only of investigation but arrest and prosecution. That is what we threw away.I have it on good authority that she leaves a demoralised and anxious staff appalled that she is to be replaced by Busisiwe Mkhwebane, an analyst at the Department of Home Affairs and a former staffer at the State Security Agency.Perhaps they're nervous because they don't know her. But the success of the public protector's office these past few years has been not just about Madonsela. The institution is its team. Mkhwebane was endorsed by most parties in parliament bar the DA (which also didn't support Madonsela when she was appointed) and she will be tested from day one.Will she pursue the investigation into state capture by the Gupta family? It is widely assumed that Zuma favoured her but that does not necessarily mean she will favour him. We have to wait and see.But we are missing a trick here. The models for prosecutor-driven investigations are well established around the world. In Italy, magistrates with the power to direct police have fought a valiant fight against corruption. They tamed the Mafia and then their own prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.In Spain, magistrates with similar powers arrested, prosecuted and ultimately jailed an intelligence minister for waging a dirty and secret war against Basque terrorists in the 1990s. It was a Spanish magistrate who secured the arrest of the Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, in London in 1998.block_quotes_start The National Prosecuting Authority has been a mere political tool of whoever runs the government block_quotes_endThe Scorpions operated under the aegis of the National Prosecuting Authority, which Thabo Mbeki ruined when he forced Vusi Pikoli out of office for his righteous pursuit of Jackie Selebi. Ever since, the NPA has been a mere political tool of whoever runs the government.Let's not forget that it was Kgalema Motlanthe who finally brought the axe down on Pikoli during his brief tenure as president.What would be good now would be to see either Zuma's opponents lining up inside the ANC to succeed him, or DA leader Mmusi Maimane, as he fashions a new coalition to take on the ANC in 2019, pledging to return prosecutor-led investigations, with wide powers of search and seizure, to our public life.Harder in the ANC, admittedly, but there is no better way for a politician to prove their determination to fight corruption than to give the job to people they truly cannot control.story_article_right2We still have a world-class legal system in South Africa (barring the NPA). If investigative prosecutors want to raid a home or seize an asset it should be up to a judge to decide whether or not to give them permission, and not someone with a hotline to the president.We all know that even if Zuma goes, as he will, corruption is endemic in our society now. It will take great determination, courage and ruthless action to root it out. But it can be done, and the rewards to our lives and our economy would be beyond measure.Of course, a proposal in, say, a parliament no longer run by the ANC and no longer influenced by Zuma, would still run into heavy resistance. And that is precisely why it is necessary. Too many people in our public life, making laws or enforcing them, are on the take. We have no way of knowing who.But it is one thing to rage against corruption during elections. It is another to actually stamp it out. An election manifesto that puts some meat onto the anti-corruption bones tossed at voters during elections would be an almost irresistible attraction. South Africans are, daily, made poorer by corruption, and they're sick of it...

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