South Africa has appointed a relatively unknown police officer to head its new serious crimes agency that replaced the elite Scorpions unit.

Deputy police chief of the Western Cape province, Anwa Dramat, will head the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation when it launches in July.

The Scorpions were disbanded after its corruption investigation of ANC leader Jacob Zuma, who is now president.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world.

“I commit myself to work for all South Africans to ensure that our country finally eradicates the scourge of fraud, corruption and organised crime,” said Mr Dramat.

Mr Dramat was an underground resistance fighter against white minority rule and served time in Robben Island jail as a political prisoner.

He has worked in the crime-ridden suburbs outside Cape Town, but has little experience tackling white-collar crime.

High-profile cases

His new team at the DPCI will take over more than 600 cases from the Scorpions after it was disbanded by the country’s governing African National Congress party in January.

The Scorpions unit had shaken South Africa’s political landscape in the last few years, probing and arresting several prominent politicians.

Among those pursued were national police chief Jacki Selebi and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of ex-President Nelson Mandela.

But observers said the unit, formally known as the Directorate of Special Operations, may have pushed its luck too far when it pressed corruption charges against Mr Zuma.

The charges were dropped shortly before his election in April.

Source: BBC