South Africa gets new crime squad

South Africa’s new serious-crime squad has begun work six months after its FBI-style predecessor was disbanded amid claims of political bias.

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation is intended to take on organised and white-collar crime. Its predecessor, known as Scorpions, pursued several senior figures from the ruling ANC, including Jacob Zuma, who became president in May.
The ANC’s opponents said the Scorpions’ abolition was a political move.

But critics of the elite crime unit said the investigators were too focused on bringing down members of the ANC.

And the unit also had notoriously bad relations with the police.

Crime analyst Antony Altbeker said the new squad should not suffer from similar problems because it is part of the police service.

“At least now it is operating under the wing of the police services so there won’t be the jealously and lack of co-operation that characterised the relationship between the police and the Scorpions,” he told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.

The new unit will, however, include many former members of the Scorpions, he said.

BBC.