Former chief justice Raymond Zondo has questioned the African National Congress conference resolution in 2007 which made a resolution to disband the elite crime-busting unit, the Directorate of Special Operations, popularly known as the Scorpions.

Zondo retired last year after a distinguished 12-year tenure at the Constitutional Court. On Wednesday, he spoke at the South African Council of Churches’ national church leaders anti-corruption conference in Johannesburg. 

“We cannot talk about intensifying or strengthening our fight against corruption, or making sure that our fight against corruption is effective, without a police force that is able to do its job properly. In the early 2000s, we had the Scorpions which were very effective in fighting corruption. The criminals had begun to fear them.

“In 2007, at the ANC elective conference, a resolution was taken to disband them. And they were disbanded. The results are there for all of us to see what happened about the levels of corruption, because I don’t believe the Hawks which were said to have taken their place are up to that job,” he said.

He said the State Capture Commission which he chaired, in its report, refers to a number of cases that were lodged in 2017 by the board of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), which was chaired by Popo Molefe. 

“We all know that corruption at Prasa has been there for ages, and nothing really effective is being done. This board had gone to the Hawks and reported these criminal activities, and there were statements given. At the time of preparing the report of the (Zondo) Commission, in early 2022, which was about five years later, there was nobody who was arrested, and the Hawks said they were still investigating,” he said.

He said the commission called upon the head of the Hawks to explain why there were no arrests, and “his explanation was completely inadequate” as stated in the report of the Zondo-led inquiry.

“As far as I know, in 2025, we have heard of no arrests of those people who were involved in corruption at Prasa, whose cases were laid with the Hawks in 2017. So, my faith in the Hawks is not the same as the faith I had in the Scorpions. 

“The question that should arise at a conference like this, is for us to ask ourselves, whether when the call was made for the disbandment of the Scorpions, we as society did enough to try and protest, and say no, this should not happen. I don’t believe we did enough. And I say, all of us, I don’t think we did enough.”

The commission of inquiry led by Zondo probed into allegations of state capture, corruption and fraud in the public sector, including organs of state. The report was submitted to President Cyril Ramaphosa in June 2022. 

In 2009, Parliament disbanded the Hawks’ predecessor, the Scorpions, in line with the resolution taken at the ANC’s Polokwane conference in 2007, despite its conviction rate of more than 90 percent.

The Scorpions were located in the National Prosecuting Authority, but the political argument was made that locating an investigative unit within a branch of the judiciary interfered with the separation of powers.

jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za

IOL News  

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