Cape Town, 11 November 1999
Madame Speaker;
Esteemed President of our democratic Republic;
Honourable members:
During our first term as the democratically-elected government, our President, Thabo Mbeki, repeatedly addressed this House on the need for national consensus on a number of issues facing our democratic government, including the issue of preventing and fighting crime.
It was therefore no coincidence that in response to the national consensus that began to emerge during this year's national elections on the issue of crime, he announced a bold initiative aimed at addressing the challenges faced by the criminal justice system in its fight against national priority crimes.
These challenges include the existence of corruption among certain officers in law enforcement agencies; the callous murder of police officers on duty; unsatisfactory standards of investigation which result in unacceptably low rates of conviction; and the general lack of an efficiently co-ordinated attack on organised and syndicated crime by the investigation, intelligence and prosecution authorities.
To meet these challenges, and in response to the national imperatives that had emerged, our President said in his first state of the nation address on 25 June:
"To enable our law enforcement agencies to translate this into reality, I am privileged to announce that a special and adequately staffed and equipped investigation unit will be established urgently to deal with all national priority crimes, including police corruption."
I am therefore honoured, Madame Speaker, to report to the democratically-elected representatives of our people, that the Inter-Ministerial Security Committee and the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Bulelani Ngcuka, have since then been hard at work to establish the Directorate of Special Operations ("the Scorpions") . This Directorate will complement and where necessary, supplement the efforts of existing law enforcement agencies in fighting national priority crimes.
The resolve of this government to assist the President in meeting his solemn commitment to the nation, is unequivocal. The launch of the Scorpions at Gugulethu, in the Cape Flats, on 1 September, sent the compelling message that the actions of those who have made organised and violent syndicated crime their business, will no longer be tolerated.
The Inter-Ministerial Security Committee and the National Director of Public Prosecutions have been diligently working around the clock to ensure that the Scorpions become fully operational by December, as announced by the President.
During this time, there have been a number of unfortunate and generally incorrect public utterances and media reports about the organisational structure, mandate and intended budget for the Scorpions. It has not been easy to assess whether this has been as result of a lack of knowledge or poor journalistic skill; it might have been a misguided attempt to create an issue where none exists.
Madame Speaker, for the purposes of my address I have assumed the former.
As stated earlier, the mandate of the Directorate of Special Operations is to complement and, in some respects, supplement the efforts of existing law enforcement agencies in fighting national priority crimes.
These crimes include vehicle hi-jacking, offences related to possession of or trading in arms and ammunition, serious economic offences (or serious commercial crime) organised and syndicated crime, corruption in the criminal justice system, and crimes against the state.
It has been announced that Mr Frank Dutton, who will act under the guidance and supervision of the National Director of Public Prosecutions, will head the Directorate of Special Operations. The National Director of Public Prosecutions will, in turn, account on the activities of the Scorpions to the President - in sitting with the Inter-Ministerial Security Committee. The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development will have line function and political responsibility for the Scorpions and will therefore, on behalf of the Inter-Ministerial Security Committee, account on this special priority crimes unit to Parliament.
We have previously stated and we would again wish to emphasise that despite the challenges we face in the fight against crime, we remain committed to operating within the parameters of the Constitution. Being tough on crime and strong on human rights are not mutually exclusive objectives.
It is for this reason that the structure of the Directorate of Special Operations will include an office for Internal Integrity. This office will be responsible for vetting members of the Directorate to ensure that they are able to perform their duties competently, free of corruption and without fear or favour. It will also monitor the activities of the Scorpions to ensure that they are conducted ethically and in compliance with the Constitution and other legislation pertaining to their activities. The office will also ensure that the Directorate follows standard and appropriate operating procedures in the execution of their duties.
The successes achieved by the Investigating Directorate: Organised Crime and Public Safety, in dealing with organised crime and urban terrorism in the Western Cape, political violence in KwaZulu-Natal, and vehicle hi-jacking in Gauteng, have highlighted the effectiveness of the troika approach to fighting organised and syndicated crime. It is for this reason that the Directorate of Special Operations will employ special investigators, intelligence operatives and specialist prosecutors who will work together in project teams.
A Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions will be responsible for assigning specialist prosecutors to direct investigations to ensure that the Directorate's investigations are court directed. This approach reflects international best practice and has resulted in improved conviction rates worldwide.
We would want to assure the public that although the National Director of Public Prosecutions will account to the President - in sitting with the Inter-Ministerial Security Committee, the primary responsibility for fighting crime rests with the executive arm of the State. There is no intention to tamper with the constitutionally and legislatively enshrined principle of functional independence of the National Director of Public Prosecutions and the National Prosecuting Authority. The discretion to institute criminal proceedings in court as a result of investigations by the Scorpions will therefore remain that of the prosecution authority.
Furthermore, both the establishment and running of this Directorate will be subject to the controls provided for by the Constitution and Parliament in respect of the oversight of organs of the State.
We are conscious that while prosecution-led investigations undoubtedly present the fight against crime with great opportunities, they also present potential risks. Steps will be taken to ensure an appropriate distance between prosecution and investigation. These will ensure that prosecutors make objective prosecuting decisions and that they properly discharge their responsibilities as officers of the Court.
These measures may include guidelines providing that a prosecutor who has directed an investigation will not make the decision to prosecute nor will he or she actually prosecute the case in court.
Madame Speaker, the magnitude of the challenge facing members of the executive and the legislature in respect of the success or failure of this initiative, cannot be over-emphasised.
We have a collective responsibility, across the political divide, to ensure that this initiative is properly resourced and that the legislative framework provides for an appropriate constitutional balance between two equally important imperatives; to combat crime with conviction and resolve, and to do so in a manner that reflects our commitment to the rule of law and the promotion and protection of human rights. The legislation must, however, provide an effective deterrent for those intending to engage in crime.
The legislation providing for the statutory establishment of this Directorate will be brought before this House in the New Year. We remain convinced that the legislation reflects an appropriate response to the urgent need for preventing and combating crime. As such, elected representatives of the people should put aside petty political bickering and lend their unequivocal support this legislation.
We should all recognise the threat that crime poses for the development of our democracy. Crime destabilises the economy and impacts dramatically on the poor and historically disadvantaged. The legislature should support this legislation in the secure knowledge that the Scorpions will dedicate their efforts to eliminating this scourge in a manner that supports the democratic and human rights traditions for which we have struggled and fought.
The President has indicated that the Scorpions will be well resourced, both in terms of equipment and personnel. A supplementary budget for the establishment of the Directorate of Special Operations within the framework of the National Prosecuting Authority has already been submitted to the Treasury Committee. A full budget will be submitted for the following financial year.
Madame Speaker, we are aware of the comments which have been made in the media regarding proposed salaries for people who are being recruited to the Scorpions. We would request that Honourable Members bear in mind that the Scorpions will provide a supplementary national resource for law enforcement. They will have a unique function and will face extraordinary challenges in executing their duties. To ensure that they succeed, we have to ensure that the Directorate recruits the best and most talented corps of personnel available.
Initial entrants will therefore be graduates or highly qualified personnel in a number of technical areas and at a senior level. Preference will therefore be given to the recruitment of people with experience and high levels of technical skill.
Since the Special Investigators of this Directorate will include chemists, forensic auditors and computer specialists, we would submit that it is short-sighted to compare the salaries they will earn to those of ordinary constables in the police service.
As we engage with one another in an effort to assist the Scorpions in realising the objectives we have set for them, we should, Madame Speaker, remember that we are building a specialist unit that must be able take on and deal with increasingly sophisticated levels of criminality.
Indeed, countries which have committed themselves to rooting out organised and syndicated crime have discovered that conventional crime fighting methods have failed against the sophisticated practices of international criminal syndicates and organised crime. It is for this reason that the Scorpions must have a strong undercover capacity with resources, financial and otherwise, to outwit and outsmart professional criminal organisations. Secrecy is an extremely important element in the fight against organised crime.
We would hasten then to correct the impression that has been created that accountability will be compromised if portions of the Scorpions budget are not subject to public scrutiny. To do this would undermine one of the fundamental principles of criminal investigation at this level. We will set in place appropriate checks and balances to ensure that every penny spent by the Scorpions is appropriately regulated. The same principles will be followed as those currently described by our law which permits accounting and auditing procedures of secret projects in a manner that does not compromise national security.
The public counts on all of us to do whatever possible to ensure that we root out crime and that we do so by upholding the rule law. That is the challenge that faces us all. Let us send out a strong message: that crime has no place in our society and that crime does not pay. WE WILL NOT FAIL THEM...