ActionSA is not lending its support to the possible establishment of a new anti-corruption body and is instead calling for the formation of a Scorpions-style unit.

On Monday President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed that at the conclusion of its three-year term the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council (Nacac) handed over its final report, which includes a recommendation to establish a permanent, independent, overarching anti-corruption body.

The Nacac was set up in 2022 to guide the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and to strengthen the State’s anti-corruption architecture.

ActionSA deputy president Mbahare Kekana said the party noted the announcement of the recommended new body but with “caution and serious reservations”.

“We do so because nothing that the ANC [African National Congress] has done in the past 31 years, including the decommissioning of the well-functioning Scorpions, was done in the best interest of South Africa. It is very disturbing to witness that many of the suspected criminals who have aided, abetted, and benefitted from weakening and repurposing our country’s vital institutions of democracy are coming from the ANC rank and file. We have no reason to believe that they will not continue to be shielded if the ANC dictates the terms of reference for the proposed establishment of a new anti-corruption body,” Kekana argued.

Instead, ActionSA wants the revival of the Scorpions through a new unit that is free from political interference, is well-resourced and has prosecutions capacity.

Kekana said the party proposes that the unit not report to a Minister or wait for Presidential decrees before investigating any purported crime.

“Crucially, the proposed body must carry out its mandate without fear, favour, or prejudice and ensure that no one – irrespective of identity or rank – gets to stand above the law,” he said.

Kekana suggested a multiparty process, led by independent experts, to preside over the creation of the unit.

In 2024, ActionSA had called for a revival of the Scorpions, citing the weakness of the Hawks, which it said lacked independence and capacity. It said despite promises by the Government of National Unity to arrest crime levels, they had continued to rise.

“If they do not live in increasingly fortified gated communities, many South Africans are forced to barricade themselves in their own homes, living behind electrified barbed wires and security fences, and relying on CCTV cameras and stealthily parted blinds to see what is happening in the streets outside their homes, streets that have been taken over by criminals who no longer hesitate to use violence in their acts of robbery. Those who live in poor rural communities, informal settlements, and townships, are even more exposed to all manners of wanton criminality,” Kekana stated.