Some responses to my blog on the Justice Minister's recent unusual request to lose the Scorpions from her portfolio have centred on the idea that the Scorpions are loaded with Apartheid era spies.
I don't see how this has anything to do with the issue. If we assume the blog associates are right and that the Scorpions are loaded with former apartheid era spies [ and I have no idea whether they are or not] then what reason have we to believe that the NIA/SAPS/Ministries of Finance/Home affairs et al are not similarly loaded with Apartheid era spies? A dozen years ago every Broederbonder in the civil service could have been defined as an Apartheid era spy-
Nonetheless the rules of competition would still apply in my view.
Secondly if the recent demise of Lothar Neethling and Gideon Niewoudt are a useful indicator one would imagine most apartheid era spies are either at or close to retirement age or dying off. Those still surviving are more probably more unlikely than most civil servants to want to rock the boat that will feed their beloved pensions.
Thirdly whomever they are likely to be they are most likely to be civil servants first and the nature of civil servants is that they do the job allocated to them because that is what they are paid to do. If part of the Scorpion's brief is to root out corruption then they will pursue that brief because it's their job.
One could argue that a government that appears to tolerate corruption is only setting up prospective 'enemies' [Jacob Zuma for instance] with a clear case to be answered in court at whatever stage they decide someone somewhere needs to be eradicated.
It would thus be useful to have a few 'pit bulls' around to pursue that goal with vigour- This would be a normal political practice and if I had the energy to go back and re-read 'the Prince' or the 'Discourses' we'd probably find that it was a core recommendation of Mr Machiavelli all those centuries ago. Corruption wasn't invented by the ANC.
In other words Apartheid era spies will soon all be gone but corruption is like HIV Aids once you've got it you've got it forever-there is no known cure only palliatives. Viva the Scorpions. Viva competition Viva the separation of Powers
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3 comments:
I understand you point.
Russian public opinion, according to a BBC news piece, is divided over whether it was right for Putin to send his goons to kidnap the corrupt Russian oligarch, Vladimir Gusinsky, and imprison him. The piece showed protesters on opposite sides of the court entrance during Gusinsky's trial shouting across passionately about justice and such. I think they're divided for similar reasons to us. Is it ever good to disregard the law to keep certain 'bad' sectors of society in fear - even for society's own good?
It's questionable in the Scorpions' case whether it was for anyone's good but certain agents' ambition to oust Zuma and replace him with the wife of a top Scorpions' agent who headed the investigation against Zuma.
I don't agree with fighting corruption with corruption. It still leaves the corrupt in charge.
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"...The media are, effectively, corporations that sell privilleged audiences to other businesses, and naturally, we would expect them to reflect the perspectives of the sellers, the buyers and the product..." - Noam Chomsky
Isn't the idea of fighting a disease with elements of a disease as in vaccinations not similar to the idea of fighting corruption with corruption...I think we've established pretty well that corruption is like HIV AIDS ...Once you've got it it's incurable and the most useful way of handling it is through palliatives.
In a society that has chosen to make one political party almost omnipotent for the present it is inevitable that political instruments are used for point scoring purposes within internal power struggles.
We still need to see the advantage to the greater society of having competing groups of investigative agencies available to keep some margin of propriety in what could otherwise be a rapidly degenerating environment.
As to whether there is a conspiracy to remove the former deputy president and replace him with the wife of the former scorpions head this speculation falls into to the category of a "falling out amongsts thieves" and politicians and like the scrappings amongst siblings or the family dogs should be left alone to work itself out
The country will outlive this particular momentary concern as it has endured through the ghastliness of the former regime.Corruption however will endure and only the rivalries between competing agencies with overlapping agendas has any chance of keeping the stables passably clear.
The suggestion that there should be some civilian oversight of this agency is perhaps the most useful to have come out of the present debate even given that the oversight appointees will in all probability be stooges representing the current "in" faction.
NiK
Fighting corruption with corruption
A further objection to maintaining the Scorpions as an independent agency centres on the premise that somehow they are "Corrupt".
In a country where corruption is rapidly becoming a way of life [ as if it wasn't already pretty well established before the present era] isn't the idea of fighting a disease with elements of a disease as in vaccinations not similar to the idea of fighting corruption with corruption...I think we've established pretty well that corruption is like HIV AIDS ...Once you've got it it's incurable and the most useful way of handling it is through palliatives.
In a society that has chosen to make one political party almost omnipotent for the present it is inevitable that political instruments are used for point scoring purposes within internal power struggles.
We still need to see the advantage to the greater society of having competing groups of investigative agencies available to keep some margin of propriety in what could otherwise be a rapidly degenerating environment characterised by the serious abuses of power with which we used to be familiar.
As to whether there is a conspiracy to remove the former deputy president and replace him with the wife of the former Scorpions head this speculation falls into to the category of a "falling out amongsts thieves" [and politicians] and like the scrappings amongst siblings or the family dogs scrapping over leftover bones should be left alone to work itself out.
The country will outlive this particular momentary concern as it has endured through the ghastliness of the former regime.Corruption however will endure and only the rivalries between competing agencies with overlapping agendas has any chance of keeping the stables passably clear.
The suggestion that there should be some civilian oversight of this agency is perhaps the most useful to have come out of the present debate even given that the oversight appointees will in all probability be stooges representing the current "in" faction rather like that stooge intitution we call parliament.
A final note here regarding the broad based mal-performance of the SAPS which has been sadly highlighted this past week with their general failure to protect the interests of various young children...It is even possible that hardly any personnel in the police actually like their jobs...few people, generally, seem to like their jobs... So the idea of taking an entity that seems to function, and blending it into an agency with difficulties would only give us a policing variation on Gresham's law, which those economists amongst you will remember states that"bad money drives out good". In other words like mixing bad wine and good wine the result is crappy wine. Similarly blending the Scorpions into the SAPS will simply give us more poorly implemiented policing where only those rich enough to afford private investigators can see a margin of justice.
Viva Scorpions, Viva Competition
NiK
NiK
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