Madam Deputy Speaker and hon members, today we have come to be witnesses to the demise of a competent organ of state - the DSO, alias the Scorpions. It is ironic that the unit is being disbanded because of its successes and not its failures. We are witnessing the obsession of the ANC to reconfigure, redesign, rename and reconstruct even successful entities such as the Scorpions so that they end up in mediocrity.
The successful unit that was launched in 1999 with fanfare and was hailed by South Africans for its success has to bite the dust because it fingered some untouchables in the ANC. In his usual guffaw of playing to the gallery, the Treasurer-General of the ANC was on record as saying, and I quote: "Why do we need people running around investigating one another?" He goes on further to say: "Institutions such as the Scorpions are unknown in other countries."
It is for this reason that we in the UCDP would say, "where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise".
This is in contrast to what the hon Fatima Chohan-Khota, a member of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, said on 11 November 1999 in a snap debate on the Scorpions. She pointed out that her committee had undertaken a visit to the United States and Canada to study, among other things, their crime-fighting structures and institutions. Whatever they learnt there, they modified to suit the local circumstances. Therefore, the Phosa argument is ill-informed.
The Scorpions have been second to none as crime busters. Their only evil is that they investigate successfully without fear, favour or prejudice. It is a shame that according to Gwede Mantashe, the Secretary-General of the ANC, the Scorpions have to be disbanded because the unit is prosecuting their leaders. He repeated this even yesterday after the successful application by the NPA to appeal against Judge Nicholson's judgement of August on the president of the ANC.
The interests of the ruling party should by no means be put above the interests of all South Africans. The checks and balances put in place even through the Khampepe Commission do not matter to the ANC. All that matters is ensuring that their members are not prosecuted. We cannot have laws applicable to some and not to others.
We regret the majoritarian approach with which the ANC handled this matter, stating that it is a Polokwane resolution and that it has to be law willy- nilly. The time will come when they will need the counsel they are spurning now. The UCDP will not support the dissolution of the Scorpions.