Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa will name on Thursday the head of the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation (DIPC) which will replace the Scorpions, his office said.
The new elite investigations unit is due to start work on July 1.
It has long been speculated that the job will go to Willie Hofmeyr, the head of the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA's) Asset Forfeiture Unit and Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions.
Hofmeyr last month told the press that he would be prepared to take up the job, but insisted that he had not been formally approached to head the new unit.
"I will be willing to do the job if I am asked, but frankly I have not even been formally approached about it," he told the Sunday Independent.
Hofmeyr was pivotal in negotiations between the NPA and lawyers for President Jacob Zuma earlier this year when the defence team produced spy tapes suggesting political meddling in the case.
Initially opposed to disbanding the Scorpions, he was involved in drafting the law establishing the unit and headed the NPA component of a task team thrashing out the details of transferring the old unit's workload to the new.
He told Parliament early this year that uncertainty about the future had resulted in Scorpions senior staff leaving at a rate of six a month and warned the exodus could hamper ongoing arms deal-related investigations
DIPC will be made up of former Scorpions investigators who pass national intelligence clearance and top police detectives from different organised crime units.
"I was part of the fight to keep the Scorpions, but also to say if there is going to be a new body, let it be as good as possible," Hofmeyr said.
Unlike the Scorpions, or the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), DIPC will not fall under the NPA but under the police.
The DSO was established by then President Thabo Mbeki in 1999 to fight organised crime and boasted an impressive success rate. Its demise was a bitter political saga.
Opposition parties argued that it was being punished for exposing wrongdoing by members of the ruling establishment.
Its detractors argued that it had overstepped its own brief and was misused for political ends.
The claim seemed to win support in the closing chapter of the Zuma case, as the spy tapes suggested former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy took political orders on the timing of recharging Zuma.
The NPA withdrew the charges on this basis.
The Scorpions were also responsible for criminal investigations against Zuma's financial adviser Schabir Shaik and suspended national police chief Jackie Selebi.