The Hawks would soon receive funding directly from Treasury, in a move aimed at increasing their independence, Police Minister Nathi Nhleko said. During his police budget speech to parliament yesterday, Nhleko said the Hawks would receive more resources in this financial year to fund the new specialised narcotics and firearms units. The Hawks would receive R1.431-billion of the police's R80.8-billion budget for this year.He said the Hawks would receive their funding from the Treasury within two years. The unit currently falls under the same budget vote as the police. "This should satisfy compliance with the ruling of the Constitutional Court in entrenching the independence of the unit," Nhleko said.Chairman of the police portfolio committee Francois Beukman said the unit's independence had been the subject of many court cases.In November 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that current legislation did not effectively insulate the unit from executive interference. Beukman said the committee would recommend that the department commence discussions with the Treasury to make the Hawks a separate budget vote from that of the police. This move would require changes to legislation as the unit currently fell under the responsibility of the national police commissioner.Nhleko said funds would also be used in this financial year to implement the findings of the Marikana commission of inquiry "so that our country may begin to heal from one of the darkest periods of our short history".He said money would also be made available to deal with the murders of police officers, "which should, in all seriousness, make us hang our heads in shame".Nhleko also defended his controversial Nkandla report, which exonerated President Jacob Zuma and which found all the upgrades to his home were security features, saying it was ''research''...