The Democratic Alliance (DA) announced on Wednesday that it will be tabling a constitutional amendment for the establishment of the “Scorpions 2.0”  – a Chapter 9 anti-corruption body to work independently of the executive and without the threat of disbandment by Parliament – to tackle State capture in the country.

DA deputy shadow minister of justice and correctional services Werner Horn addressed the media in Johannesburg, where he noted that the DA strongly believed that this institution must be set up to fortify against political manipulation by the African National Congress (ANC) government or even a future government.

“This will prevent politicians from disbanding it when it does its work, like we have seen with the Scorpions, which was abolished by a simple majority vote in Parliament. If this entity is positioned in Chapter 9 of the Constitution and identified as being critical to the rule of law in our country, it will require the support of at least 75% of Members of Parliament to be disbanded should it be deemed central to the rule of law,” explained Horn.

DA leader John Steenhuisen said it was almost a year since President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Anti-Corruption Council was established, however, there’s no legislation that has come to Parliament to establish a new South African corruption-fighting body.

Steenhuisen explained that in the year since Chief Justice Raymond Zondo released the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector – an exercise that cost the South African taxpayer in excess of R1-billion – the process to implement a raft of recommendations and structural changes to South Africa’s State institutions and oversight bodies had come to a grinding halt.

He added that of the 98 ANC members mentioned in the Zondo Report, not one has been reprimanded by the party nor handed over to law enforcement for investigation.

“In the National Assembly, of the 16 recommendations made by the Zondo Report to bolster and fix Parliament’s model of accountability over the executive, the majority of the substantive and immediately implementable recommendations have already been voted down by the ANC,” he said.

He highlighted that the DA had taken several steps to ensure that accountability was strengthened, that institutions were rebuilt and bolstered independently and impartially, and that organs of State tasked with the investigation and prosecution of those implicated in corruption were strengthened.

The party announced that it had written to the chairperson of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council (NACAC) Professor Firoz Cachalia, to highlight a number of concerns the party had with the council’s work, which the DA believed had taken place predominantly in a vacuum of transparency where only the executive had had sight of the council’s proposals, and not the necessary independent institutions such as Parliament.

“This should be of particular concern to all South Africans given that we cannot trust the NACAC’s impartiality and credibility if it is proposing solutions to a problem of corruption to the very source of the corruption problem itself. This despite an initial assurance from President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2021 State of the Nation Address that the NACAC would report to Parliament and not the executive,” said Steenhuisen.

WHISTLEBLOWERS’ SAFETY

The DA believes government is moving at a “snail’s pace” to strengthen and expand whistleblower protection, as well as the substance of the amendments government is considering. The DA said government had failed to show the type of urgency and seriousness demanded by the critical role whistleblowers needed to play in an effective fight against corruption.

During the 2022 State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa announced that the relevant law enforcement agencies were to take the “necessary steps to address the immediate concern about the safety of whistleblowers”.

Horn noted that unfortunately, since then, no new measures, such as extending witness protection to whistleblowers whose lives were endangered by their revelations, had been introduced.

Last week, a Discussion Document on Proposed Reforms of the Whistleblower Regime in the country, was published and public comment was invited.

Horn highlighted that the choice to publish a discussion document, rather than a draft Bill, was yet another example of government’s dragging its feet. In addition, the document was primarily constituted of background legal research, but only two pages were dedicated to concrete proposals, he said.

He explained that while some of the draft proposals were good, the DA was of the view that it lacked at least one key ingredient if the country was to ever break the mafia-like stranglehold of corrupt masterminds in this country: the establishment of a compensation fund, from which whistleblowers of grand scale corruption could be compensated if investigations led to convictions.

This fund would encourage legitimate whistleblowing while simultaneously punishing for information provided that was is false or in bad faith, he said.