I have worked on many cases involving the Scorpions and the organised crime unit over the years. While both have their flaws — who doesn’t? — they are nonetheless our knights in shining armour and, without a doubt, our spearhead in the fight against major crime.

They comprise highly trained and courageous professionals who are proud of their work.

I should at this stage point out that I am friends with certain members of these units going back a number of years, and I declare this interest in light of what is set out below.

In accordance with the announcements made by Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, the Scorpions will be merged with organised crime, which will then be phased out in favour of a new unit.

Lest anyone forget, I am a defence attorney and these units are invariably my opponents. Yet they are responsible for taking the fight to the criminals, exposing major crime and giving the people of this country some sense of security — a feeling that there is accountability even when the government fails to provide it.

Before anyone pops the racial question, these units are totally multiracial and there to benefit us all.

This has to raise a couple of questions:

  • Why are they being disbanded or phased out? Their results are brilliant, leaving the only inference to be drawn that they are too good and pose a threat to people who wish to commit or continue committing crime.

    This, in my humble opinion, is the first promise the ANC has broken to the poor and oppressed people since Polokwane. Its promise was to uplift the poor; these units are exposing the people who steal the money that should be available for projects to uplift the poor. Instead, the gravy train can move on, secure in the knowledge that the billions these people are pocketing will not come under scrutiny.

    Instead of destroying something that works, rather tackle the rest of the structures that don’t work — or is that too simplistic?

  • Why should the turf war between these units be the cause of their demise? The fact is that the politicians caused the turf war, not the other way around. It is the rift within the ANC that has to be healed, not these units that have to go. Rivalry between elite units is a worldwide phenomenon and very healthy. Their use for political ends is not. Fix the problem; do not destroy the most effective tools in the fight against crime.

    • When I said that we have to give Zuma, Selebi and — at that time — Nel amnesty and start again, it was because this country was paying too high a price for these prosecutions. My reasons are set out in detail in those articles.

    Today, instead of an amnesty, we still have these prosecutions in play and in their place a lacuna where our two most effective crime-fighting units used to be.

    Draw the line in the sand — bring in those amnesties and wipe the slate clean. Then make it an offence for the government to interfere with the organs of state.

    This is a fledgling democracy and we are making major mistakes, seemingly on a daily basis.

    We have to start getting the basics right. Stop destroying what works in the name of expedience and start making the people responsible for these mistakes accountable.

    If Polokwane sent this democracy one message loud and clear, it was to start looking after our masses. Instead of removing the people who protect them, ignoring the politicians who have failed them and rewarding those who have benefited at their expense, start showing you do care with conduct, not words.

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    Michael Trapido

    Michael Trapido

    Mike Trapido is a criminal attorney and publicist having also worked as an editor and journalist. He was born in Johannesburg and attended HA Jack and Highlands North High Schools. He married Robyn...

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