Well, it looks like another "bun fight" in the making - the police verses the scorpions! And whilst our supposedly policing presence fight it out - what happens to the criminals? Well obviously they just go about their normal day to day business of robbing/killing/raping their intended victims! Bizarre!

One point raised in the article however that should be highlighted is the fact that our police force do not seem to have been properly trained in the aspect of forensic's and blunder about crime scenes destroying evidence - sounds like it should be back to school for all of them.

Regards
Nikki

The arrest of a friend of South Africa's top police officer for murder, signals further embarrassment for the beleaguered law enforcement agency in one of the world's most crime-ridden countries. Members of the elite Scorpions crime-fighting unit carried out the arrest of Johannesburg businessman Glenn Agliotti at dawn on Thursday for the mafia-style killing of mining tycoon Brett Kebble last year. But while the breakthrough in the case would normally have been a cause for celebration, Agliotti's friendship with national police Commissioner Jackie Selebi has instead triggered calls for the top cop's resignation."I've never denied my relationship with Glenn. Never.

It has never been a secret," Selebi told The Star, sister newspaper of the Pretoria News, on Friday. "I don't know of his alleged criminality. He did not tell me about it. "Commentators, however, believe that not only has Selebi been hugely damaged by his ties to Agliotti, long regarded as a key figure in the underworld, but so has President Thabo Mbeki's government, which expressed its confidence in Selebi only last week after reports that he was under the surveillance of the Scorpions. The Mail and Guardian weekly, which broke the story of the ties between the two men, said the arrest had "opened up perhaps the biggest can of legal worms in South Africa's criminal history". "Agliotti's arrest must come as a huge embarrassment to the police chief and to the Cabinet, which publicly backed him last week," the newspaper added. Opposition parties have been quick to capitalise on the situation. "How is it that in a civilised nation, we have a situation where a police commissioner is associated with someone whom people are referring to as a South African mafia don?" The main opposition Democratic Alliance's shadow security spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard asked. The DA has called for Selebi to be axed by Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, a particular whipping boy for the opposition parties since he told MPs that those "whingeing" about crime should emigrate. A spokesperson for the minister said Nqakula had only just returned from a trip to the United Nations and was "appraising himself of the situation". Kebble's murder was one of 18 528 carried out last year, making South Africa one of the homicide capitals of the world. Flaws in the investigation into Kebble's killing may explain why only a minority of murder cases are ever solved. David Klatzow, a forensic expert and private investigator who was hired by Kebble's family after the killing, said there had been a "tremendous" decline in the standard of the police's forensic work. "The damage to the scene was so gross and the abuse of normal procedures of forensic investigations and crime scene procurement so abysmal that it raised the question as to whether it was done deliberately in order to make prosecutions unviable," he told a public radio station. Others noted that it was the Scorpions, South Africa's version of the FBI and who are answerable to Mbeki, rather than the police to arrest Agliotti. Since its creation in 1999, the unit has shown a willingness to take on high-profile targets such as former British premier Margaret Thatcher's son Mark, who was arrested for financing an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. The Scorpions themselves, however, have not been immune from embarrassment. The former deputy director and former strategic operations unit chief are both facing charges of theft, fraud and corruption. It is an open secret that the Scorpions have managed to get up the nose of the regular police force."The fact that the Scorpions effected an arrest while the South African Police Service has been investigating the matter for more than a year, proves that the Scorpions have far better investigative skills and abilities than the police," said Kenneth Meshoe, leader of the African Christian Democratic Party. Kohler-Barnard said South Africa could ill afford any such rivalry. "How can you have a situation where the Scorpions are literally competing with the South African police force? When the entire nation should be focused on dealing with the criminals, instead we are watching infighting when they should be working as a team".

This article was originally published on page 8 of Pretoria News on November 18, 2006