History
In June 1999, president Thabo Mbeki announced that "a special and adequately staffed and equipped investigative unit will be established urgently, to deal with all national priority crime, including police corruption". In September 1999 The Directorate of Special Operations was set up, with the first director Frank Dutton.
Soon, the Scorpions became notorious for their raids of houses of high-ranking politicians within the ANC Party. Following investigations of alleged corruption in case of the South African Arms Deal, raids were commenced at the houses of Deputy President Jacob Zuma, former Transport Minister Mac Maharaj and Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.
After the conviction of Shaik on 8 June 2005, the Scorpions raided his house again on 18 August. This time it was part of a couple of raids in investigation for the corruption trial of Zuma, which started in October 2005. Raids were also conducted at houses of Jacob Zuma himself. These raids were heavily criticised by COSATU, accusing that the NPA and the judicial system are capable of being manipulated and influenced to take biased political decisions and actions. Just a few days before the raids, the COSATU had asked the government to drop charges against former Deputy President Jacob Zuma and to reinstate him.
The DSO pioneered a new approach, which combines intelligence, investigation and prosecution. With the DSO's success in high-profile cases, public confidence grew in the Directorate's ability to impact on organised crime. Money laundering and racketeering were added to its priorities and the DSO succeeded in obtaining the first-ever convictions for racketeering in South Africa.
By February 2004, the DSO had completed 653 cases, comprising 273 investigations and 380 prosecutions.
Of the 380 prosecutions, 349 resulted in convictions, representing an average conviction rate of 93,1%.
Read more about this topic: Scorpions (South Africa)
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