"HAWKS" PRIORITY CRIMES POLICE UNIT LAUNCHED

UNCLAS PRETORIA 001418 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED SIPDIS FOR AF/A AND INL/AAE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC KCRM KDEM SF SUBJECT: "HAWKS" PRIORITY CRIMES POLICE UNIT LAUNCHED PREMATURELY ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Accompanied by a great deal of government-generated fanfare, the chief of South Africa's disbanded elite crime fighting unit, the "Scorpions," handed over pending investigation files to the newly appointed chief of a new elite crime-fighting unit organized within the South African Police Service. The new unit was christened the "Hawks," festooned with its own logo and motto -- We will seek; we will find; we will succeed -- and heralded in a series of half-page ads in prominent daily newspapers. Reports that the Hawks are already swooping down on crime have proven premature, however, as it became increasingly clear that the "Hawks" are as yet only semi-hatched. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) On July 6, at a gala ceremony in Midrand, Thanda Mngwengwe Chief of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Directorate of Special Operations, aka the Scorpions, handed over 288 pending investigations to South African Police Service, Deputy Commission Anwa Dramat, the newly appointed Director of Priority Crimes and Investigations. In response to the many critics who condemned the decision to disband the Scorpions and delighted in forecasting that the replacement unit -- or "DIPCI" -- was doomed to ineffectiveness in comparison, Dramat announced the birth of "The Hawks" and said 1700 officers from the SAPS and former Scorpions had been screened to join the Hawks. Dramat said the Hawks would focus on violent crimes such as highjacking, ATM bombings and cash-in-transit heists. Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Charin de Beer assured the audience that moving the priority crimes unit out of the NPA and under the SAPS would not interfere with prosecutions, add that there "will always be a dedicated capacity" to deal with priority crimes within NPA. ¶3. (SBU) On July 8, a police spokesman in KwaZulu-Natal province boasted that the Hawks had snagged two robbers who were about to hold up a jewelry store in Durban. This surprise announcement was greeted with some skepticism and prompted a flurry of questions on the make-up of the Hawks to the national SAPS press office. The SAPS acknowledged that the arrest had been made by the provincial SAPS organized crime unit and admitted that that no one other than chief Anwa Dramat had as yet been officially assigned to the Hawks. Speaking on behalf of Dramat, Spokesperson Sally de Beer said that the arrests could be attributed to the Hawks and the detective who led the operation "might be" included in the new unit. ¶4. (SBU) Adrian Basson's commentary in the weekly Mail & Guardian (M&G),entitled, "A Falconer, but No Hawks," blasted the government for launching with pomp and ceremony a unit with only one official member. According to Basson, the Hawks are first and foremost the end product of an African National Congress campaign to get rid of the successful Scorpions; thus the confusion regarding the birth of the Hawks should not surprise us. Basson said the announcement that the Hawks would employ as many as 3500 officers from the former Scorpions and SAPS detectives does not jibe with numbers of officers available, unless all detectives working the SAPS organized and commercial crime divisions become Qthe SAPS organized and commercial crime divisions become Hawks. Despite the confusion associated with the birth of the Hawks, Basson called for an end to the public moaning about the demise of the Scorpions, stressing that the public deserves a force even better equipped and skills than the Scorpions to deal with organized crime and corruption. CONNERS