The Cost of Disbanding the Scorpions

When the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), popularly known as the Scorpions, was disbanded in January 2009, governance experts widely agreed that the decision was political; aimed at shielding corrupt politicians rather than strengthening law enforcement. What has received far less attention is the institutional damage left in its wake.

The Scorpions were not merely investigators; they were legal and financial specialists who anchored every case firmly in statute. Their presence imposed competence across policing and prosecution. Their absence has exposed a troubling decline in the ability of law enforcement to identify and investigate crime.

Sixteen years on, police officers across the country routinely ask complainants a question that should never arise: “What crime do you think has been committed?” This uncertainty has had real and damaging consequences.

Late last year, Sipho, a 27-year-old from Gauteng, was to relocate to Cape Town for work. After responding to a rental advertisement on Gumtree, he paid R10,000 in deposit and administrative fees to a supposed landlord. On arrival in Cape Town, he discovered the apartment was occupied by its rightful owners and had never been available for rental in years - the landlord was fictitious.

Despite presenting extensive documentary evidence at Table Bay Harbour Police Station, Sipho was told by a detective that because he had paid “voluntarily,” the matter was civil rather than criminal. He left the station in tears.

Only after intervention by uSpiked was the fraud correctly identified as a violation of Section 37 of the Consumer Protection Act. The transaction - between two Nedbank accounts - was reversed within hours, and Sipho recovered his funds.

This failure is not isolated.

Sydney Nkatsha, a 60-year-old former operations manager with 34 impicable years of service in retail industry with the latter five at OK Furniture, was dismissed after questioning manipulated financial statements used to justify withholding of employees’ bonuses. At the subsequent arbitration  hearing at the  CCMA, witnesses for the employer allegedly gave false testimonies under oath - an act constituting perjury. Soon after the hearing Mr Nkatsha opened a criminal perjury case with the SAPS against the witnesses who had alledegly lied at the proceedings, later the assigned detective conducted no meaningful investigation. The National Prosecuting Authority later halted the matter for lack of evidence.

Evidence that was never pursued.

Sydney Nkatsha, former OK Furniture's Operations Manager

Had the DSO still existed, investigators would have been guided in extracting and presenting proof of perjury. Instead, the case was reclassified as a labour dispute , hence a civil matter and quietly closed.

uSpiked has written to the Eastern Cape Provincial Director of National Public Prosecutions, Advocate Barry Madolo, seeking clarity on why prosecutors failed to guide investigators in pursuing an evident criminal offence. At the time of publication, no response had been received.

The disbandment of the Scorpions did not merely remove an elite unit. It dismantled an institutional standard; one that ensured crime was recognised, investigated, and prosecuted. What remains is a system where justice too often falters, not for lack of victims, but for lack of expertise withing the criminal justice system.

uSpiked is still getting to understand what motivated OK Furniture to run two sets of financials and how their auditors cleared the two sets. And how the executives at the holding company, Shoprite Group condoned the practice.