The former Chief Justice has lashed out at the Hawks, saying he had no similar faith in them as he had with the former Scorpions.
Raymond Zondo says the Scorpions were very effective, and the corrupt lot in the country feared them, and corruption was largely contained.
He then lamented the decision of the ANC, which was taken in 2007 in Polokwane, to disband them and replace them with the Hawks.
Zondo was speaking in Johannesburg at an anti-corruption event organised by the religious sector and civic organisation.
“In the early 2000s a decision was taken to disband them (the Scorpions) and they were disbanded. The results are there for all of us to see what happened about the levels of corruption, because I don’t believe that the Hawks which were said were taking their place are up to that job,” Zondo said, adding that in 2017, PRASA reported corruption cases to the Hawks, but they were never investigated.
He added that he does not believe that enough opposition was put against the ANC when it arbitrarily decided to disband the Scorpions.
He then lashed at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), saying it should have people of integrity so that when it arrests people, it should be only about them having done something wrong, nothing else.
He added that in recent years, the NPA publicly charged people and later withdrew the charges when the cases had to get underway.
“Equally important in the fight against corruption is the NPA. In recent times, there have been frustrations on the part of society because of some cases that the NPA has not handled in a manner that satisfies society. And these have largely been matters which relates to high-profile personalities and are corruption matters. The NPA is critically important in the fight against corruption. We cannot afford to have a weak NPA.
“We cannot afford to have an NPA that cannot do its job. The NPA needs to be given all the resources that it can have to have in order to play its role in the fight against corruption. But also, it is important that the people at the NPA throughout the country, the prosecutors, be people of integrity. When they decide that they are charging somebody with corruption, we must know that it has nothing to do with anything except breach of the law,” said Zondo.
