EDITORIAL: Don’t bet on Scorpions 2.0 fixing SA

The newly reformed ANC leaders, eager to distance themselves from the kleptocratic state that emerged during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, are fond of speaking of the “nine wasted years”.  

It’s a disingenuous feint, partly since this framing seeks to exculpate those who, prior to their Damascene conversion in 2016, were complicit in dismantling the state brick by brick.

Yet on Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that in a bid to prevent “state capture 2.0”, the government would make the Investigating Directorate (ID) a permanent fixture in the National Prosecuting Authority.

He is, in other words, reviving the Scorpions — the priority crimes directorate that, at one point, had a 92% conviction rate. 

The formidable Scorpions claimed a number of high-profile scalps, including ex-Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown. But, ominously, they also tackled the politically corrupt — including Schabir Shaik, Jackie Selebi, Tony Yengeni and John Block. 

The ANC intelligentsia will no doubt say it’s a coincidence that the “wasted years” happened after the party’s 3,900 delegates to its 2007 Polokwane conference resolved to close the Scorpions.

But Raymond Zondo’s state capture report suggests you shouldn’t believe a word of it. The fact that there was no truly independent investigating body to probe the extent to which Zuma ceded state powers to crooked businessmen ensured the practice flourished. 

The question now is whether Ramaphosa’s move to upgrade the ID will stem the tide of rent-seeking. This is debatable, since it’s unclear whether the ANC supports such a move. Already, people such as ANC presidential hopeful Zweli Mkhize are talking about repealing the party’s step aside rule. 

And many in the ANC who voted to dissolve the Scorpions in 2007 are still there. The national executive that year included Ramaphosa, Kgalema Motlanthe, Gwede Mantashe, Jeff Radebe, Fikile Mbalula, Mkhize, Bheki Cele, Lindiwe Zulu and others.

At the time, the ANC’s arguments in favour of dissolving the Scorpions were wafer-thin. The Scorpions had too “broad a mandate”, there were “jurisdictional battles” with the police, they were “selective in the cases they pursued”. And the forces coalescing around Zuma argued that the Scorpions were “being used to settle political scores”. 

It was no surprise that in October 2008, on a day which the IFP’s Koos van der Merwe said would “live in infamy”, 252 ANC MPs voted in favour of a legislative amendment to kill the Scorpions.

It is this experience that gives Paul Hoffman, director of Accountability Now, little hope that the ID’s fate will be any different. 

“The notion of expecting the ID, which isn’t sufficiently independent of the executive anyway, to solve serious corruption cases is wrong. It can currently be closed down at the stroke of a pen,” he says. “What you need to do is establish an anti-corruption body as a new chapter 9 institution, which can’t be closed down by a simple majority of parliament.” 

But Hoffman says he can’t see this happening any time soon. “The ANC wants hegemonic control of all the levers of power, and the corruption-busters are a major hindrance. The government won’t get this right unless it ensures that this unit won’t be vulnerable — and the president’s announcement on Sunday doesn’t even come close,” he says.