Bulelani+Ngcuka+still+controls+some+Scorpions,+Jovial+Rantao+The+Star



='Bulelani Ngcuka still controls some Scorpions'=


 * Jovial Rantao The Star, Joahnnesburg, 11 January 2008**

Former national director of prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka controls some members of the elite Scorpions unit from his posh office in the private sector.

This allegation has been made by National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi in an affidavit that forms part of his court application seeking to stop the Scorpions from arresting him.

In his founding affidavit, Selebi says Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy is still taking instructions from Ngcuka and has lost all objectivity and impartiality.

"Ngcuka is still controlling senior members of the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions), in particular McCarthy, and he is the driving force behind the investigations against me," Selebi says.

He also reveals in the affidavit that he fell out with Ngcuka soon after he was appointed to replace George Fivaz in 2000.

He recounts that soon after his appointment, he attended a national-security cluster meeting with Ngcuka.

"During the meeting, Ngcuka presented an operational plan for the DSO, which would have made the SAPS obsolete.

I objected to his plan in no uncertain terms and informed the meeting that I was of the view that the investigating arm of the Scorpions should (fall) under SAPS control.

"Since the meeting, the relationship with Ngcuka and me was strained and eventually led to a heated argument when he wanted me to disclose the names of police informants to the Hefer Commission, in which he was accused of being an informant to the apartheid security forces," Selebi says.

Even after Ngcuka left the Scorpions, the relationship between the unit and the SAPS continued to deteriorate. On one occasion President Thabo Mbeki had to intervene. He ultimately appointed a judicial commission of inquiry to decide the future of the Scorpions.

At the commission hearing, chaired by Judge Sisi Khampepe, the division between the two organisations spilled out into the open.

The commission recommended that the Scorpions should remain with the National Prosecuting Authority but that a co-ordinating committee chaired by the minister of safety and security be formed to control operational issues between that unit and the SAPS.

The theme that runs through Selebi's affidavit and similar supporting documents is that the Scorpions' action against him is part of an elaborate plan to maintain its autonomy.

He also argues that the Scorpions by acting against high-profile individuals such as himself, former transport minister Mac Maharaj, ex-Limpopo Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi and ANC president Jacob Zuma are looking to convince the public that it would be in the public's interest not to collapse the Scorpions into the SAPS.


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4201883**

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