{"id":719796,"date":"2023-09-20T13:52:23","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T11:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=719796"},"modified":"2023-09-20T13:52:23","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T11:52:23","slug":"scorpions-2-0-one-step-closer-to-reality-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/719796\/scorpions-2-0-one-step-closer-to-reality-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Scorpions 2.0&#8217; one step closer to reality for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services has opened the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill for public comments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bill wants to formalise a specialised investigation unit inside the National Prosecuting Authority akin to the Directorate of Special Operations, or so-called \u201cScorpions\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Scorpions were held in high regard for their corruption case before being dissolved and replaced by the Hawks by an ANC majority in parliament in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The aims of the Amendment Bill include the following: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Insert certain definitions;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide for the establishment of the <strong>Investigating Directorate against Corruption and its powers and functions;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide for the appointment of investigators in the Investigating Directorate against Corruption;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provide for the appointment of investigators;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide for the security screening of investigators;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide for the remuneration and conditions of service of investigators;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide for the establishment of a mechanism to deal with complaints of a serious nature pertaining to persons appointed at or assigned to an investigating directorate;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide for the powers and functions of investigators;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide for transitional arrangements relating to the existing Investigating Directorate to become part of the Investigating Directorate against Corruption;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Amend the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act, 2002, so as to make provision for applications for directions in terms of that Act by the head of the Investigating Directorate against Corruption; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>And to provide for matters connected therewith.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The return of the specialised investigation unit follows recommendations from the State Capture Commission, with President Cyril Ramaphosa saying that the NPA&#8217;s Investigating Directorate would be turned into a permanent unit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Investigating Directorate was created in 2019 as a temporary unit to investigate corruption-linked crimes directly linked to the State Capture Commission&#8217;s findings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A fully-fledged unit will also help South Africa&#8217;s chances of getting off the Financial Action Task Force\u2019s (FATF\u2019s) greylist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa was added to the list in February this year as the FATF expressed concerns over the slow action and weak stance of tackling corruption and prosecuting individuals involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite there being some state-capture recoveries in recent years, not a single high-profile person of interest flagged by the commission has been successfully prosecuted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who want to comment on the Bill must do so by Friday, 6 October 2023, by emailing Npabill@parliament.gov.za. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/National-Prosecuting-Authority-IPID-Bill.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill <\/a> can be found below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/National-Prosecuting-Authority-IPID-Bill.pdf\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/719536\/south-africas-id-crisis-home-affairs-accused-of-illegally-blocking-over-a-million-ids\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">South Africa\u2019s ID crisis \u2013 Home Affairs accused of illegally blocking over a million IDs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Investigating Directorate is going through the legislative process &#8211; with the aim of tackling government corruption. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":642205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-719796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":719808,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719796\/revisions\/719808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}