tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/hawks-30330/articlesHawks – The Conversation2023-05-24T13:42:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2061012023-05-24T13:42:03Z2023-05-24T13:42:03ZCorruption in South Africa: former CEO’s explosive book exposes how state power utility was destroyed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527785/original/file-20230523-19-yugb19.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PenguinRandomHouse</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One repeated theme of the <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/truth-power-my-three-years-inside-eskom/9781776390625#:%7E:text=De%20Ruyter%20candidly%20reflects%20on,to%20speak%20truth%20to%20power">memoir</a> Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom, by Andre de Ruyter, former CEO of South Africa’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-electricity-supply-whats-tripping-the-switch-151331">troubled power utility</a>, Eskom, is that “negligence and carelessness had become cemented into the organisation”. </p>
<p>Dirt piled up at even the newest power stations until it damaged equipment, which stopped working – and some equipment disappeared beneath a layer of ash.</p>
<p>Integrity had been displaced by greed and crime: </p>
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<p>Corruption had metastasised to permeate much of the organisation. </p>
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<p>As a political scientist who has, among other topics, followed corruption and kleptocracy, this book ranks among the more informative.</p>
<p>De Ruyter (or his ghost writer) delivers a pacey, racy adventure <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/truth-power-my-three-years-inside-eskom/9781776390625">thriller</a>. Chapter after chapter reads like a horror story about Eskom, whose failure to generate enough electricity consistently for <a href="https://theconversation.com/power-cuts-and-food-safety-how-to-avoid-illness-during-loadshedding-200586">the past 15</a> years has <a href="https://www.investec.com/en_za/focus/economy/sa-s-load-shedding-how-the-sectors-are-being-affected.html">hobbled the economy</a>. </p>
<p>The book is also a sobering indication that parts of South Africa now fester with organised crime.</p>
<p>This book merits its place alongside <a href="https://www.loot.co.za/product/crispian-olver-how-to-steal-a-city/jywy-5080-g730?PPC=Y&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgZaS7pbE3QIVS7DtCh0EGQXfEAAYASAAEgLszPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">How to Steal a City</a> and <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/how-to-steal-a-country-state-capture-and-hopes-for-the-future-in-south-africa/">How to Steal a Country</a>. These two books chronicle how corruption undermined respectively a city and a country to the level where they became dysfunctional.</p>
<h2>Brazen looting</h2>
<p>Another take-away is the devastating indictment of De Ruyter’s immediate predecessors as CEO, <a href="https://www.eskom.co.za/heritage/matshela-koko/">Matshela Koko</a> and <a href="https://www.eskom.co.za/heritage/brian-molefe/">Brian Molefe</a>. They appear as incompetent managers who ran into the ground what the Financial Times of London had praised as the world’s best state-owned enterprise as recently as 2001. Both <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/live-former-eskom-boss-matshela-koko-arrested-on-corruption-charges-20221027">Koko</a> and <a href="https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/molefe-singh-back-in-palm-ridge-specialised-commercial-crimes-court/">Molefe</a> have been charged with corruption – at Eskom and the transport parastatal Transet, respectively.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explosive-revelations-about-south-africas-power-utility-why-new-electricity-minister-should-heed-the-words-of-former-eskom-ceo-201508">Explosive revelations about South Africa's power utility: why new electricity minister should heed the words of former Eskom CEO</a>
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<p>The standard joke about corruption is “Mr Ten Percent” – meaning a middleman who adds 10% onto the price of everything passing through his hands. Under Koko and Molefe, this had allegedly ballooned into “Mr Ten Thousand Percent”. </p>
<p>For example, De Ruyter writes that Eskom was just stopped in the nick of time from paying a middleman R238,000 for a cleaning mop. </p>
<p>Corruption focused on the procurement chain. One middleman bought knee-pads for R150 (US$7,80) and sold them to Eskom for R80,000 (US$4,200). Another bought a knee-pad for R4,025 (US$209) and sold it to Eskom for R934,950 (US$48,544). The same applied to toilet rolls and rubbish bags. One inevitable consequence of corruption on such a scale was that Eskom’s debt, which was R40 billion (US$2.076 billion) in 2007 (the year that former president Jacob Zuma came to power), ballooned to R483 billion (US$25 billion) by 2020 – which incurred R31 billion (US$160 million) in annual finance charges.</p>
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<img alt="Book cover showing a Caucasian man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527730/original/file-20230523-27-r4nxs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527730/original/file-20230523-27-r4nxs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527730/original/file-20230523-27-r4nxs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527730/original/file-20230523-27-r4nxs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527730/original/file-20230523-27-r4nxs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527730/original/file-20230523-27-r4nxs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527730/original/file-20230523-27-r4nxs8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PenguinRandomHouse</span></span>
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<p>De Ruyter reveals that the “presidential” cartel (meaning one of the local mafias) pillaged Matla power station, the “Mesh-Kings” cartel Duvha power station, the “Legendaries” cartel Tutuka power station, and the “Chief” cartel Majuba power station. He writes that the going rate for bribes at Kusile power station is R200,000 (US$10,377) to falsify the delivery of one truckload of good quality coal. <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/special-investigating-unit-secure-another-preservation-order-matter-related-corruption">Kusile</a> is one of the two giant new coal-fired power stations which Eskom is relying on to end power cuts.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-bailout-of-eskom-wont-end-power-cuts-splitting-up-the-utility-can-as-other-countries-have-shown-200490">South Africa's bailout of Eskom won't end power cuts: splitting up the utility can, as other countries have shown</a>
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<p>The book says a senior officer at the <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/dpci/index.php">Hawks</a>, the police’s priority crimes investigation units, tipped off De Ruyter how he was blocked in all his attempts to combat corruption at Eskom. Senior police officers, at least one prosecutor, and a senior magistrate, have also been bribed by the gangs. </p>
<h2>Noncomformist</h2>
<p>Eskom had 13 CEOs and acting CEOs in 13 years. Twenty-eight candidates, most of them black, rejected head-hunters’ offers to become CEO of Eskom. De Ruyter who was previously CEO of Nampak, took a pay cut (to R7 million) to accept the job, in the hope of accelerating Eskom’s transition from coal to renewables.</p>
<p>At the time of his appointment some commentators alleged that he was an African National Congress (ANC) cadre deployed to Eskom. The ANC’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321223498_The_African_National_Congress_ANC_and_the_Cadre_Deployment_Policy_in_the_Postapartheid_South_Africa_A_Product_of_Democratic_Centralisation_or_a_Recipe_for_a_Constitutional_Crisis">cadre deployment</a> policy is aimed at ensuring that all the levers of power are in loyal party hands – often regardless of ability and probity. But De Ruyter came <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/anc-claims-de-ruyter-is-trying-to-tarnish-its-image-ahead-of-elections-in-2024-20230426">into conflict</a> with the ruling party.</p>
<p>What caught De Ruyter out was the viciousness of the political attacks on him: smears of racism and financial impropriety. He had to devote many hours of office time to refuting them: </p>
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<p>occupying that seat at Megawatt Park comes with political baggage. </p>
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<p><a href="https://za.geoview.info/eskom_megawatt_park,32555009w">Megawatt Park</a> is Eskom’s head office in Johannesburg. </p>
<p>The book’s early chapters summarise how he was one of those Afrikaners with Dutch parents, who did not conform entirely to apartheid norms. The Afrikaner <em>volk</em> imposed the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid">apartheid</a> regime onto South Africa for 42 years. In his high school years he became a card-carrying member of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Progressive-Federal-Party">Progressive Federal Party</a>, a liberal anti-apartheid opposition party, antecedent of the Democratic Alliance, which is now the official opposition to the governing party. </p>
<h2>Poisoning</h2>
<p>De Ruyter’s book mentions organising a routine Eskom stakeholders’ meeting at a guesthouse in Mpumalanga province. </p>
<p>To save time, he ordered that food be served on plates to table places, instead of buffet arrangements. The guesthouse management refused, due to fear of facilitating poisoning one or more guests – only buffet arrangements could thwart that. </p>
<p>He says that in Tshwane (Pretoria), the seat of government, the National Prosecution Authority no longer orders takeaway lunches for delivery to their premises. Instead, standard procedure is that a staff member buys lunches for all at random take-away shops. </p>
<p>This sinister development culminated in De Ruyter himself being poisoned with cyanide in his coffee in his office, demonstrating how mafia-type gangs had recruited at least one Eskom headquarters staff member.</p>
<h2>Unintended consequences</h2>
<p>In several places De Ruyter also touches on other issues. The unintended consequence of some government policies, such as localisation and <a href="https://www.treasury.gov.za/comm_media/press/2022/2022110801%20Media%20Statement%20-%20PPP%20Regulations%202022.pdf">preferential procurement</a>, is that it costs Eskom two and a half times more to pay for each kilometre of transmission cable than it costs <a href="https://www.nampower.com.na/">Nampower</a> Namibia’s power utility, just across the border. </p>
<p>What stands out from this memoir is that the success of a company demands that a CEO, managers, artisans, guards, and cleaners all take the attitude that the buck stops with them – seven days a week – and act accordingly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206101/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Gottschalk is a member of the African National Congress, but writes this review in his professional capacity as a political scientist.</span></em></p>The book shows how parts of South Africa now fester with organised crime.Keith Gottschalk, Political Scientist, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2003392023-02-26T19:04:30Z2023-02-26T19:04:30ZAustralia’s red goshawk is disappearing. How can we save our rarest bird of prey from extinction?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511625/original/file-20230222-28-yy4h34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C9%2C2011%2C1827&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick Webster</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s red goshawk once ruled the skies. But now this almighty raptor, affectionately known as The Red, has become our nation’s rarest bird of prey.</p>
<p>Concern for the species prompted our new research. We completed the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2172735">first comprehensive population assessment</a> of the red goshawk using a dataset of all known records (1978–2020). The results were even worse than expected. </p>
<p>We were shocked to discover The Red had completely disappeared from more than a third (34%) of its range. The species is almost certainly extinct in New South Wales and the southern half of Queensland. </p>
<p>This bird is declining – and probably just barely hanging on – in a further 30% of its range, spanning northern Queensland from the Gulf to the Wet Tropics. The rest of northern Australia is the last stronghold for the species. </p>
<p>Although nationally listed as vulnerable, we argue this species requires urgent uplisting to endangered. High priority must be given to conservation action now, before it’s too late. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511621/original/file-20230222-26-fj93hf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511621/original/file-20230222-26-fj93hf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511621/original/file-20230222-26-fj93hf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511621/original/file-20230222-26-fj93hf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511621/original/file-20230222-26-fj93hf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511621/original/file-20230222-26-fj93hf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511621/original/file-20230222-26-fj93hf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Adult female red goshawk with kookaburra prey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris MacColl</span></span>
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<h2>A striking bird of prey</h2>
<p>The red goshawk (<em>Erythrotriorchis radiatus</em>) is an evolutionary oddity, with no near relatives in this country. It is a top predator, with rainbow lorikeets, sulphur-crested cockatoos, and blue-winged kookaburras its preferred quarry. </p>
<p>Remarkably, the average female is nearly twice the size of the average male, with this relative size difference making it one of the most dimorphic raptors in the world. </p>
<p>This striking bird first came to the attention of Western scientists around 1790, when a specimen was found nailed to an early settler’s hut near Botany Bay. </p>
<p>Since then, it has captivated birdwatchers with its rich rufous (red) plumage, sharp gaze, and immense feet and talons. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=942">Historically, it was found</a> along Australia’s eastern and northern coastal fringe, from Sydney, north to Cape York Peninsula, and across to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. But over the years, keen observers noticed their occasional glimpses of this almighty hawk became rarer. Then suddenly people were no longer seeing them, in certain regions. </p>
<h2>Slipping towards extinction</h2>
<p>Recording the extinction and ongoing loss of the red goshawk over two thirds of its known range in our lifetime was shocking. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511902/original/file-20230223-2744-uxqf8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Australia showing the distribution of the red goshawk within the various ecoregions" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511902/original/file-20230223-2744-uxqf8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511902/original/file-20230223-2744-uxqf8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511902/original/file-20230223-2744-uxqf8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511902/original/file-20230223-2744-uxqf8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511902/original/file-20230223-2744-uxqf8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511902/original/file-20230223-2744-uxqf8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511902/original/file-20230223-2744-uxqf8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Map showing assessment of the red goshawk’s breeding status across its range.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris MacColl</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>While the destruction of habitat through land clearing, which is still rampant in both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/17/land-clearing-in-nsw-triples-over-past-decade-state-of-the-environment-2021-report-reveals">New South Wales</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-queensland-is-still-ground-zero-for-australian-deforestation-196644">Queensland</a>, is a key reason for this loss, other factors must be at play. </p>
<p>We know that degraded forests, like those that are <a href="https://theconversation.com/native-forest-logging-makes-bushfires-worse-and-to-say-otherwise-ignores-the-facts-161177">logged</a> or suffer from inappropriate fire regimes, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0490-x">lose many</a> of their species, particularly those higher up the food chain. </p>
<p>However, this doesn’t aptly describe the loss of red goshawk from seemingly large areas of intact habitat, such as Shoalwater Bay or Conondale National Park. </p>
<p>More research is needed to unpick why this species has disappeared so quickly and over such an immense area. <a href="https://raresgroup.com.au/red-goshawk/">Current efforts</a> focus on potential disease threats, poor breeding, low juvenile survival rates, and developing a better understanding of how they use the Australian landscape.</p>
<h2>The Red’s last refuge</h2>
<p>Our research reveals northern Australia is the last stronghold for this species. Cape York Peninsula supports the last known breeding population in Queensland. The Top End, Tiwi Islands, and Kimberley regions also sustain vital breeding populations. </p>
<p>This is unsurprising given northern Australia supports the world’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/ecocheck-australias-vast-majestic-northern-savannas-need-more-care-59897">largest intact tropical savanna</a> ecosystem. Yet, despite limited broad scale habitat loss to date, these northern savannas are <a href="https://theconversation.com/ecocheck-australias-vast-majestic-northern-savannas-need-more-care-59897">under threat</a> from inappropriate fire regimes, weeds, cattle, and the onset of climate change. These threats can interact and compound one another, posing increasingly complex challenges for land managers trying to save species like the red goshawk. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/field-of-nightmares-gamba-grass-in-the-top-end-12178">fire-intensive gamba grass</a>, an invasive weed, is spread by livestock. Climate change may extend the fire season, through lengthier dry spells. Hot treetop fires incinerate nests and the chicks inside them. The intensity and seasonality of storms is also increasing, as well as thermal extremes, threatening young during the nesting season. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511623/original/file-20230222-18-o1hp5b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511623/original/file-20230222-18-o1hp5b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511623/original/file-20230222-18-o1hp5b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511623/original/file-20230222-18-o1hp5b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511623/original/file-20230222-18-o1hp5b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511623/original/file-20230222-18-o1hp5b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511623/original/file-20230222-18-o1hp5b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two small red goshawk nestlings, the maximum this species can have.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris MacColl</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tropical savannas may be increasingly compromised through large scale vegetation clearing and fragmentation. Preparing land for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-15/federal-government-investigating-land-clearing-nt/101852502#:%7E:text=The%20federal%20government%20is%20investigating,way%20for%20a%20cotton%20industry">crops such as cotton</a> or mines for minerals such as bauxite can remove big swathes of habitat. Efforts to obtain other natural resources such as timber and gas also fragment otherwise intact landscapes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Large trees being felled as native forest is cleared in Queensland" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512140/original/file-20230224-28-awdcga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512140/original/file-20230224-28-awdcga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512140/original/file-20230224-28-awdcga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512140/original/file-20230224-28-awdcga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512140/original/file-20230224-28-awdcga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512140/original/file-20230224-28-awdcga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512140/original/file-20230224-28-awdcga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Land clearing remains rife in Queensland, undermining efforts to conserve wildlife and reduce carbon emissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/queensland-moves-to-control-land-clearing-other-states-need-to-follow-58291">Kerry Trapnell/The Wilderness Society</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Red deserves better protection</h2>
<p>Australia is blessed with unique bird life. Nearly half of our birds are found nowhere else on Earth. </p>
<p>But the nation’s rarest bird of prey is in trouble. The red goshawk deserves better protection. At the very least, the species needs to be uplisted from <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicthreatenedlist.pl">vulnerable</a> to endangered by the federal government. This will more accurately reflect current extinction risk and prioritise conservation action. And there’s no time to waste, because red goshawk habitat continues to be cleared – permission was granted to clear a total of <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.12860">15,689 hectares</a> of red goshawk habitat between 2000 and 2015, which is more than any other threatened species had to contend with. </p>
<p>The Red needs to be recognised as a flagship species for northern Australia, to promote conservation of its remaining habitat. Intervention would benefit many other threatened species, because what’s good for them is good for many others. In this way, the red goshawk is one of the most <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/cost-effective-conservation-study-identifies-key-umbrella-species/">cost-effective</a> ‘umbrella species’ for conservation action. </p>
<p>To secure the longterm survival of this beautiful bird, we need better protection across the tropical north, expanding both <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/indigenous-protected-areas">Indigenous Protected Areas</a> and national parks. These areas can be managed directly for conservation, but working with the agricultural and extractive industry is also critical. Low numbers of red goshawks are distributed across a vast area, covering multiple tenures, so all parties need to work together if this species is to persist in the north.</p>
<p>We must not repeat past mistakes and allow habitat in the tropical north to be fragmented, rendering the landscape unable to support native predators like the red goshawk. This means rigorously assessing developments and implementing protections commensurate with the large areas that The Red requires. </p>
<p>If we can’t look after such an ecologically important, charismatic, and iconic species such as The Red, what hope do we have for <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-ten-mps-represent-more-than-600-threatened-species-in-their-electorates-83500">Australia’s many other threatened species</a>?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/native-birds-have-vanished-across-the-continent-since-colonisation-now-we-know-just-how-much-weve-lost-176239">Native birds have vanished across the continent since colonisation. Now we know just how much we’ve lost</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher MacColl receives funding and support from Rio Tinto Weipa, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, the Queensland Department of Environment and Sciences, and the University of Queensland. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Watson has received funding from the Australian Research Council and National Environmental Science Program and receives funding from South Australia's Department of Environment and Water. He serves on scientific committees for Bush Heritage Australia, SUBAK Australia, BirdLife Australia and has a long-term scientific relationship with the Wildlife Conservation Society. He serves on the Queensland Government's Land Restoration Fund's Investment Panel.</span></em></p>The first comprehensive population assessment of the raptor affectionately known as The Red reveals a species in trouble. Australia’s rarest bird of prey needs our help.Christopher MacColl, PhD Candidate, The University of QueenslandJames Watson, Professor, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1900952022-10-07T14:51:13Z2022-10-07T14:51:13ZThe science of why hawks are one of nature’s deadliest hunters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487755/original/file-20221003-26-pfmcug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C25%2C4243%2C2818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An adult male Swainson's hawk in flight </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/adult-male-swainsons-hawk-flight-about-65513197">Rob McKay/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The sight of hundreds of thousands of bats streaming from their roost at dusk is one of nature’s great spectacles. Swarms can be so dense they resemble rising smoke at a distance. But the aerial antics of the birds of prey that hunt them are just as astonishing.</p>
<p>Studying these behaviours in a remote corner of the Chihuahuan Desert (which stretches from the southwest US to Mexico) has been a highlight of my almost 25-year career as a biologist studying animal flight. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32354-5">My team’s study</a> was done in collaboration with bat scientist Laura Kloepper (University of New Hampshire). </p>
<p>Prey animals often find safety in numbers, and bats are no exception. Moving in a group <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347284710578">dilutes an individual’s risk of being attacked</a>. It can also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5319319/">confuse the predator</a> and make it harder for them to track a target. This is called the confusion effect. Humans get disorientated in this way by large groups of objects and animals too. <a href="https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/swainsons-hawk">Swainson’s hawks</a> tend to attack the <a href="https://www.batcon.org/article/mexican-free-tailed-bat/">Mexican free-tailed bats</a> they feed on as the bats emerge in swarms from their cave. The bats fly much slower as they leave their cave compared to open airspace (they can reach speeds of <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.160398">nearly 100 mph</a> if the area is clear). </p>
<p>My team found the hawks seemed unfazed by the confusion effect. </p>
<h2>Seeing clearly</h2>
<p>How do hawks steer clear of the confusion effect that bewilders us humans when watching a swarm? To answer this question, we filmed the hawks as they plunged into the stream of bats flowing from a cathedral-like cave. High-definition video cameras placed strategically around the mouth of the bat cave allowed my team to reconstruct the 3D trajectories of the hawks and the bats they attacked. But recreating a behaviour is only the first step towards understanding its mechanics. Next, my team analysed how the hawks steered their line of attack. </p>
<p>We used a computer simulation approach that we had first developed in 2017 to study the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1714532114">attack behaviours of peregrine falcons</a>. This method uses a set of mathematical formulae called <a href="https://www.mathsisfun.com/calculus/differential-equations.html">differential equations</a> to simulate the birds’ behaviour. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1714532114">previous work</a> had shown that the attack behaviours of falcons are steered in a similar way to guided missiles, using a technique called <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5217080">proportional navigation</a>. To understand how this works, imagine yourself as an aerial predator looking at your prey while closing in on it at speed. Your prey may try to evade you. But if you turn at a rate proportional to the rate at which the compass bearing of your prey changes, then you will take a path that gives you the best chance of intercepting your quarry.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487756/original/file-20221003-20-yjwtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487756/original/file-20221003-20-yjwtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487756/original/file-20221003-20-yjwtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487756/original/file-20221003-20-yjwtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487756/original/file-20221003-20-yjwtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487756/original/file-20221003-20-yjwtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487756/original/file-20221003-20-yjwtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mexican free-tailed bats leaving a cave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mexican-freetailed-bats-leaving-south-texas-642865711">GizmoPhoto/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A bird using this technique to chase lone prey will naturally follow the twists and turns of its target. But the hawks we filmed attacking the swarm did not appear to respond to the individual motions of the bats they grabbed. In fact, the hawks simply turned on a near constant radius into the swarm, flying along an almost circular arc. The birds were steering towards a fixed point in the swarm instead of singling out a bat. </p>
<p>This strategy would be hopeless against an erratic solo target, but has a good prospect of success against a dense gathering of prey. It would not be surprising if a bat happened to be hit by an arrow shot at random into the swarm, and the same holds for a diving raptor. The hawks’ success at avoiding the confusion effect may be partially explained by the fact they can circumvent the complication of tracking a target on approach. </p>
<h2>Closing in</h2>
<p>Even so, catching a bat in your talons is not easy. It’s a complicated process that more often than not ended in failure for the hawks. So how did the hawks select which bat to grab once they had closed in on the swarm?</p>
<p>We used graphing software to trace how the line of sight drawn from the attacker to its target varied through the attack. This analysis revealed a clear answer: the direction of the line of sight to the target remained almost constant on all the attacks. It varied least on those that ended in a successful catch. </p>
<p>This geometry holds true for any pair of objects on a <a href="https://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/crashcourse.html">collision course</a>. Mariners are taught to spot a constant bearing to <a href="https://eoceanic.com/sailing/tips/27/179/how_to_tell_if_you_are_on_a_collision_course_with_another_vessel/">avoid crashes with other boats</a> and drivers use it intuitively to merge safely onto a busy road. The colony of up to 900,000 bats that we studied emerged en masse in the space of just a few minutes. For a predator plunging into this dense a swarm, there are so many targets at least one will be on a collision course. The difficult bit is to identify and catch it.</p>
<p>Whereas a stationary onlooker will perceive the whole swarm to be in motion, the geometry of a collision means that a moving observer will see anything it is on course to hit as stationary. Swarms, flocks, and shoals that look confusing to our own eyes seem more orderly to a mobile predator taking the plunge. </p>
<p>The same will hold true for any attacker, whether a shark ambushing a school of tuna, or a drone defending against a swarm of incoming drones. Our results have implications for understanding how other predators avoid a confusion effect, and even for designing autonomous air defences. Above all, our findings are a neat example of the clever ways in which nature adapts to solve difficult challenges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 682501) to Graham Taylor, and from an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award N000141612478 to Laura Kloepper. The author thanks Turner Enterprises, Inc. and the Armendaris Ranch for access and housing at the field location.</span></em></p>Predators are often confused by large groups of prey animals. But not the Swainson’s hawk.Graham Taylor, Professor of Mathematical Biology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1119072019-02-26T11:40:53Z2019-02-26T11:40:53ZOspreys’ recovery from pollution and shooting is a global conservation success story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260014/original/file-20190220-148536-ws2wli.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Osprey on a nesting platform in Massachusetts.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Craig Gibson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A hundred years ago, a person wandering the back roads of coastal New England might have come across an odd sight: at the edge of a farmyard, cheek by jowl with pigs and chickens and cows, a tall pole topped with a massive stick nest. And standing guard in the nest, a large brown-backed, white-headed wild bird of prey – an Osprey (<em>Pandion haliaetus</em>). </p>
<p>Farmers in this region knew that nesting Ospreys were vigilant watchdogs, quick to chase “chicken-hawks” and other predators away. But as fish eaters, Ospreys were no threat to farm animals. And they were trusting enough to live comfortably near humans. So farmers lured them by building them places to nest – generally, an old wagon wheel atop a bare pole, mimicking the dead trees in which Ospreys had nested for millennia. </p>
<p>Although these clever farmers didn’t know it, they were pioneering methods that would help to bring Ospreys back from the edge of extinction decades later. As I recount in my new book, “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/ospreys">Ospreys: The Revival of a Global Raptor</a>,” these birds have made a spectacular recovery from chemical pollution, guns and traps, thanks to many dedicated conservationists and an amazing ability to thrive in close quarters with humans.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mqGKX7Eofy4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ospreys spot fish from high above, then dive to catch them, often plunging fully underwater.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gone in the blink of an eye</h2>
<p>Up to 1950, Ospreys were one of the most widespread and abundant hawks in North America. Few rivers, lakes or ocean shorelines lacked a nesting pair. In certain favorable spots, such as islands along the Atlantic coast, wooded swamps in Florida and western states, and shallow-water lagoons bordering the Gulf of Mexico and Baja California, hundreds of nests were often clustered together in just one or two square miles. </p>
<p>But the bottom dropped out after World War II. Insecticides developed for military use – particularly DDT – flooded onto the civilian market to control farm and forest pests and mosquitoes in towns and villages. These chemicals accumulated in food chains, so Ospreys received large doses from the fish they consumed. In their bodies, DDT <a href="https://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/Region_5/NWRS/Central_Zone/Montezuma/OspreyFacts.pdf">thinned their eggshells</a>, causing a disastrous drop in the number of eggs that produced live chicks. In addition, other insecticides poisoned nestling and adult Ospreys. </p>
<p>By the mid-1960s, the number of Ospreys breeding along the Atlantic coast between New York City and Boston had fallen by 90 percent. And, as I document in my book, most other populations in the United States and Canada had declined by half to two-thirds. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260016/original/file-20190220-148520-1m5882i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260016/original/file-20190220-148520-1m5882i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260016/original/file-20190220-148520-1m5882i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260016/original/file-20190220-148520-1m5882i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260016/original/file-20190220-148520-1m5882i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260016/original/file-20190220-148520-1m5882i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260016/original/file-20190220-148520-1m5882i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260016/original/file-20190220-148520-1m5882i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spraying DDT in Barker County, Oregon to control spruce budworm, 1955.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#/media/File:1955._Fort_tri-motor_spraying_DDT._Western_spruce_budworm_control_project._Powder_River_control_unit,_OR._(32213742634).jpg">R. B. Pope/USDA Forest Service/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was the era of “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/magazine/how-silent-spring-ignited-the-environmental-movement.html">Silent Spring</a>,” biologist Rachel Carson’s blockbuster exposé, which sounded one of the first alarms about the hidden environmental costs of pesticides. </p>
<p>Ospreys played a lead role in this drama. Their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10937404.2010.538658">well-documented crash</a> provided concrete data for court cases brought to block indiscriminate spraying. Sanity prevailed: The most lethal and persistent insecticides were <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/ddt-regulatory-history-brief-survey-1975.html">banned by the 1970s</a>, giving Ospreys and other birds, including the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/recovery/biologue.html">Bald Eagle</a> and <a href="https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=B01H">Peregrine Falcon</a>, a respite in the nick of time. </p>
<h2>A seismic shift in nesting sites</h2>
<p>But restoring robust numbers of Ospreys to regions where most or all of the breeders were gone required more than just curbing the flow of environmental contaminants. Nest sites were increasingly scarce along shorelines as development consumed old pastoral landscapes. With fewer safe places to raise young, Osprey recovery prospects appeared dim, no matter how clean the environment or how abundant local fish populations were.</p>
<p>But concerned naturalists took a cue from those old farmyard nest poles and began to erect new poles in the 1970s and ‘80s, especially along the broad ribbon of salt marshes hugging the Atlantic seaboard. Ospreys adapted remarkably, zeroing in to nest on these poles, as well as on a kaleidoscope of other artificial sites springing up along U.S. coasts and rivers: power and lighting structures, channel markers and buoys, and more recently, even megatowers supporting cellphone and other electronic communications equipment. Other nesting birds of prey make occasional use of such sites, but Ospreys have been the champion colonizers. </p>
<p>No one could have predicted such a dramatic shift a generation ago, or what a boost it would give to Osprey numbers. Within just a few miles of where I live along the Massachusetts coast, over 200 Ospreys now nest each year, lured in by abundant nest poles we’ve built on wide-open marshes. Fewer than 20 Ospreys were found here in the 1960s. </p>
<p>This is not an isolated phenomenon. Thousands of pole nests now dot the coastal landscape from Maine to Florida – testimony to persistent work by hundreds of dedicated people. In Florida, at least 1,000 pairs of Ospreys have made cell towers their nesting homes. Along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, nearly 20,000 Ospreys now arrive to nest each spring – the largest concentration of breeding pairs in the world. Two-thirds of them nest on buoys and channel markers maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard, who have become de facto Osprey guardians. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260485/original/file-20190222-195870-1dq74lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260485/original/file-20190222-195870-1dq74lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260485/original/file-20190222-195870-1dq74lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260485/original/file-20190222-195870-1dq74lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260485/original/file-20190222-195870-1dq74lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260485/original/file-20190222-195870-1dq74lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260485/original/file-20190222-195870-1dq74lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260485/original/file-20190222-195870-1dq74lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Osprey nest on a channel marker.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/osprey-flying-away-nest-on-channel-106258223?src=rSQm87gJRuWZ_lXLTOWS8Q-1-35">Maria Dryfhout/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A global resurgence</h2>
<p>These new nests have powered quick growth in numbers, with more Ospreys in the United States and Canada today than ever before. Many are colonizing new areas. </p>
<p>And this revival extends well beyond the Americas. Ospreys have a global reach, from Scotland to Japan and from the Mediterranean to Australia. Particularly in Europe, where most Ospreys were eliminated by guns and traps rather than by insecticides, we are seeing extraordinary recoveries. </p>
<p>Traveling to Europe in the summer of 2016 to research my book, I discovered flourishing new osprey populations. Artificial nest sites – supports built mostly in trees to stabilize existing nests and encourage new ones – were plentiful and packed with young ospreys ready to fledge. In Germany, shallow wire baskets secured atop enormous power pylons provided foundations for hundreds of new nests that had taken hold in areas long-abandoned by Ospreys.</p>
<p>Some researchers complain that providing these birds with nest sites is making them “prisoners of platforms” – creating artificial populations where none were meant to be. But rampant coastal development, plus industrial farming and forestry in surrounding regions, have badly degraded the landscapes in which Ospreys once thrived. To have robust numbers of this species back again is a reward for all who value wild animals, and a reminder of how nature can rebound if we address the key threats. </p>
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<header>Alan Poole is the author of:</header>
<p><a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/ospreys">Ospreys: the Revival of a Global Raptor</a></p>
<footer>Johns Hopkins University Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.</footer>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johns Hopkins University Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.</span></em></p>Chemical pollution and hunting pushed Ospreys to the edge of extinction in the mid-20th century. Today, they have rebounded and can be spotted worldwide, often nesting on manmade structures.Alan Poole, Research associate, Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/980112018-06-13T06:16:18Z2018-06-13T06:16:18ZMass slaughter of wedge-tailed eagles could have Australia-wide consequences<p>Last week it was revealed that at least 136 wedge-tailed eagles have been <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-12/wedge-tailed-eagles-killed-east-gippsland/9859880">intentionally poisoned</a> in East Gippsland, with concerns that more are yet to be found. </p>
<p>In the past five years I have used satellite tracking devices to research wedge-tailed eagles’ movements across Australia, and I’ve never encountered raptor deaths on this scale.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-birds-survived-the-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-97021">How birds survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid</a>
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<p>It’s been suggested that the birds were killed to protect lambs. Tragically, not only was this illegal cull unnecessary – evidence suggests that eagles do not often kill livestock – but it could also have ecological consequences right across Australia.</p>
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<h2>Juvenile birds</h2>
<p>There are two main categories of wedge-tailed eagles, based on their age class: sedentary breeding adults, which stay in a home range with nest sites; and highly nomadic juvenile birds that can cover huge distances. There are usually fewer adult birds in one place, because they are territorial. </p>
<p>The very high number of birds affected make it likely that they were largely juveniles. There is currently no accurate data on how many wedge-tailed eagles are in Australia, but this single culling event could have serious effects on future generations’ breeding capacity. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bold-and-aggressive-behaviour-means-birds-thrive-in-cities-94600">Bold and aggressive behaviour means birds thrive in cities</a>
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<p>Sites of persecution can have impacts to eagle populations if they become “ecological sinks”. These are places that draw birds in from a wide area, perhaps because of an unnaturally abundant food source, and then result in birds dying. If these ongoing “mortality black holes” cause hundreds of birds to die in relatively short periods of time, this can start impacting the population.</p>
<h2>Do eagles kill lambs?</h2>
<p>The wedge-tailed eagle is a powerful predator that kills a variety of mammals. Anecdotal observations by landowners describe birds attacking live lambs and even half-grown sheep. There are also cases in the literature of them working in tandem to hunt larger prey such as kangaroos – behaviour that has been widely documented for large eagle species. </p>
<p>However, evidence gathered during <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/WR9800433">extensive research</a> in Australia has shown that in most cases, eagles seen feeding on lamb or sheep carcasses are “cleaning up” after other predators like foxes and crows, which were actually the direct cause of death.</p>
<p>There are no documented cases of wedge-tailed eagles causing significant economic impacts to the sheep industry. But even if they did, there are other options besides culling. Carcasses placed near livestock would provide easier alternative food sources, for example. Shepherds can effectively guard flocks and protect lambs. Finally, given that wedge-tailed eagles are protected, it may be appropriate for the government to pay compensation for livestock losses. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-wearing-backpacks-trace-a-path-to-conservation-93782">Birds wearing backpacks trace a path to conservation</a>
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<p>It must also be emphasised that eagles prey on a range of other species that are considered to be agricultural pests, such as overabundant native kangaroos, cockatoos, and feral species like rabbits and foxes. </p>
<p>Some eagles live, and some die. Such is life on this amazing, arid continent. Death itself is a normal ecological phenomenon, but unnatural deaths on such a large scale can have disastrous consequences for long-lived raptors like the wedge-tailed eagle. We must as a community respect the critical role that predators play in the landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98011/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Cherriman receives funding from The Goldfield's Environmental Management Group for his research into tracking eagles.</span></em></p>The poisoning of dozens of wedge-tailed hawks in Victoria could affect the entire wild population.Simon Cherriman, Ornithology, Murdoch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/681752016-11-06T10:38:48Z2016-11-06T10:38:48ZHow Zuma has used the capture of South Africa’s state institutions to stay in power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144450/original/image-20161103-25343-zu2p1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The criminal case against South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan, right, is an example of President Jacob Zuma's abuse of state institutions. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.enca.com/south-africa/npa-withdraws-charges-against-pravin-gordhan">The withdrawal</a> of charges against South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan by the country’s <a href="https://www.npa.gov.za/">National Prosecuting Authority</a> brings to mind events in <a href="http://city-press.news24.com/News/i-stand-by-my-judgment-judge-who-threw-out-zuma-corruption-case-20160216">2008</a> when a judge quashed corruption charges against current President Jacob Zuma. </p>
<p>In his judgment Judge Chris Nicholson found that then President Thabo Mbeki had used state institutions to execute a political strategy to get rid of Zuma. The judge quashed the charges of corruption, money laundering and fraud against Zuma, removing a major obstacle to his becoming president of the country. The Supreme Court of Appeal later <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2009-01-12-judge-nicholson-redcarded-by-sca">overturned this judgment</a>.</p>
<p>Now state institutions – in particular the criminal justice system – are being abused in internal power struggles within the governing African National Congress and the government. Zuma’s political survival is a core ingredient in both.</p>
<p>But he may have run out of road. Against the backdrop of the ANC’s mounting appreciation of its recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/sharp-tongued-south-african-voters-give-ruling-anc-a-stiff-rebuke-63606">electoral losses</a>, this could be the year that determines his immediate future.</p>
<p>But much more than the president’s future is at stake. The most significant long-term consequence of the machinations against Gordhan is the institutional damage caused to the priority crimes investigating unit of the police, the <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/dpci/index.php">Hawks</a>, and the country’s National Prosecuting Authority.</p>
<p>Their credibility in the public eye is at an all-time low. While the courts are being used by opposition parties and civil society to challenge abuses, the criminal justice system is being used by members of the government to protect their interests. This might in fact be the real “state capture” rather than <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/download-the-full-state-of-capture-pdf-20161102">crony relationships</a> between businessmen and government officials.</p>
<p>How did it come to this?</p>
<h2>Gunning for Gordhan</h2>
<p>Gordhan’s woes began in earnest in February when the <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/dpci/index.php">Hawks</a> demanded his response to 27 questions about the erstwhile <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/02/28/The-Hawks-27-questions-for-Pravin-Gordhan">investigative unit</a> at South African Revenue Services (SARS).</p>
<p>The questions centred around allegations that the SARS unit was engaged in <a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/sars-this-is-the-inside-story--adrian-lackay">rogue activities</a>. Gordhan was the head of the revenue service at the time.</p>
<p>What followed over the next few months was a game of cat and mouse between the prosecuting authority and Gordhan. On May 20 the head of the Hawks, Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza, confirmed that Gordhan was <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/gordhan-off-the-hook-2024530">not a suspect</a> in their investigation. His statement came as market sentiment towards South Africa intensified, threatening a downgrade of the country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-appropriate-that-south-africans-rally-behind-their-finance-minister-59872">sovereign rating</a>. </p>
<p>The game ended, however, on August 25 when the Hawks summoned Gordhan to their offices to sign a <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/documents/document/3-Hawks-letter-to-Malatji-22082016.pdf">warning statement</a>. <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/documents/document/4-Pravin-Gordhan-Statement-to-the-Hawks-23082016.pdf">He refused</a>. </p>
<p>On October 11 he was summoned to <a href="https://www.enca.com/south-africa/npa-charges-gordhan-pillay-and-magashula-with-fraud">appear in court</a>. The <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2016-10-11-breaking-gordhan-summoned-for-fraud">summons</a> was the fourth time this year that Gordhan had been confronted by either the Hawks or the National Prosecuting Authority. </p>
<p>Is there a pattern in these events? </p>
<p>I believe there is. And it has to do with the country’s National Treasury exercising its mandated independence. Efforts to thwart it began with the firing of then Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-removal-of-south-africas-finance-minister-is-bad-news-for-the-country-52170">December 2015</a>. Subsequently, a crisis developed each time the Treasury intervened in the management of state-owned enterprises such as South African Airways, the electricity utility Eskom or the South African Broadcasting Corporation. </p>
<p>The question of Treasury doing its job – part of which is to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent well and honestly – has also been inextricably tied up with the <a href="http://mg.co.za/tag/gupta-family">Gupta family’s</a> patronage relations with Zuma. The country seems to have found itself in crisis mode whenever this relationship has come under the spotlight.</p>
<p>The most startling incident included <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/full-text-mcebisi-jonas-statement-20160316">a statement</a> by Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas that he had been approached by members of the Gupta family and offered the job of finance minister. This was while Nene was still in the post. </p>
<p>The Guptas’ contracts with Eskom about coal supplies and <a href="http://city-press.news24.com/News/how-eskom-bailed-out-the-guptas-20160612">ownership of a mine</a> also deepened the view that the Treasury was the only state institution which could arrest these developments, counter the patronage plague and reign in the Gupta business spree in state enterprises.</p>
<p>Gordhan appeared as the personification of the move to counter Zuma’s and Guptas’ designs on Treasury and a bulwark against fiscal ill-discipline, mismanagement of the state businesses. South Africa found itself in an unusual situation: a government minister had become the main counterbalance for the president. </p>
<h2>Zuma’s strategy</h2>
<p>Zuma’s apparent survival strategy in most instances is to look for a skeletons in the closet. In Gordhan’s case, he thought he’d found one in the allegations that SARS engaged in illegal intelligence activities, on Gordhan’s watch. </p>
<p>The strategy appears to work this way: whenever Treasury opposes a plan by Zuma, his allies in state companies and the Guptas the Hawks respond by making it known that they have resumed their SARS investigation. Then, once the issue has been resolved, as when Treasury relented and agreed to provide a <a href="http://www.fin24.com/Companies/TravelAndLeisure/Treasury-approves-R6488bn-loan-for-SAA-20150122">loan guarantee</a> for South African Airways, the Hawks investigation goes quiet.</p>
<p>This strategy reached a critical point when former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela indicated that her report into allegations that the Guptas had captured the state was <a href="http://www.businesslive.co.za/news/latest-news/2016-10-13-zuma-seeks-interdict-to-stop-madonsela-releasing-state-capture-report/">ready for release</a>. </p>
<p>The furore coincided with the Constitutional Court’s refusal to grant the National Prosecuting Authority the right to appeal against the <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/04/30/Legal-experts-praise-spy-tapes-judgment">“spy tapes” judgment</a>, raising the possibility that Zuma could once again face charges related to allegations of corruption that were dismissed in 2008. </p>
<p>These two developments posed a real threat to Zuma. He had to do something. So, the resuscitation of charges against Gordhan in the hope that the fear of losing his position as finance minister would neutralise him. </p>
<h2>State capture by the presidents?</h2>
<p>The use of the National Prosecuting Authority and the police in ANC presidential and succession struggles has a decade-long history. What’s been different in the Zuma era is that a symbiosis has developed between the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority. This political contamination in their ranks is illustrated by the controversies around senior figures such as <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/10/06/NPA-investigator-running-a-gestapo-like-investigation-against-Breytenbach">Glynnis Breytenbach</a>, <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/booysens-tell-all-book-reveals-web-of-deceit-20160917">Johan Booysen</a>, <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-22-hawks-boss-dramat-quits-after-reaching-settlement">Anwa Dramat</a> and <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2016-09-15-npas-nomgcobo-jiba-and-lawrence-mrwebi-struck-from-the-roll-for-advocates">Nomgcobo Jiba</a>. </p>
<p>Pressing ahead with charges against Gordhan made one conclusion possible: Zuma had ultimately captured the Hawks and National Prosecuting Authority for his own political survival.</p>
<p>Abrahams’ withdrawal of the charges against Gordhan has strengthened Gordhan’s position immeasurably. And charging him again would create more risks for the National Prosecuting Authority. With the latest withdrawal Zuma has lost his bargaining chip against Gordhan. But that’s not to say that the game is over.</p>
<p><em>Former President Thabo Mbeki has pointed that our initial article failed to mention that Judge Nicholson’s judgment <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2009-01-12-judge-nicholson-redcarded-by-sca">was overturned</a> by the Supreme Court of Appeal. This republished version corrects that.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dirk Kotze does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The use of the prosecuting authority and the police in ANC succession struggles has a long history. What’s different in the Zuma era is the symbiosis between elite police and the prosecution service.Dirk Kotze, Professor in Political Science, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/645352016-08-29T14:39:22Z2016-08-29T14:39:22ZSouth Africa’s finance minister is vindicating the law by ignoring police unit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135794/original/image-20160829-17884-ruwvae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Jacob Zuma is accused of using the Hawks to target his finance minister, Pravin Gordhan.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When an elite crime-fighting unit investigates a member of Cabinet, what does the rule of law require? In South Africa the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) have been <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/stnews/2016/08/28/Im-prepared-to-die-to-save-SA-from-the-thieves-says-Gordhan">circling</a> finance minister Pravin Gordhan. </p>
<p>Two main narratives are emerging to explain the ongoing saga. The first is that the minister <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/gordhan-not-above-the-law-zumas-son-20160825">may have committed some crimes</a> and must be investigated. The second is that the country’s president, Jacob Zuma, is <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2016-08-24-the-hawks-and-pravin-gordhan-why-the-law-should-not-take-its-course/">using the Hawks</a> to discredit or harass the minister. The President’s goal, under this second narrative, is to remove the minister from his post in order to “<a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/maseko-confirms-gupta-state-capture-submission-to-anc-20160601">capture</a>” the National Treasury.</p>
<p>Those who favour the first narrative argue that if Gordhan is innocent of wrongdoing, the legal process will establish his innocence. He should not be exempted from investigation or prosecution. Proponents of this view point out that <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/03/15/Hawks-Gordhan-is-not-above-the-law">nobody is above the law</a>. </p>
<p>The best way to explore which of these narratives reflects the truth is to establish what it means for the law to “take its course”. If the law is taking its course, not only will everybody be equally subject to it, but the State itself will exercise its powers only under the authority of the law. So the first step is to establish what the law requires of the Hawks.</p>
<h2>The Hawks must act within their mandate</h2>
<p>The Hawks are a unit within the South African Police Services (SAPS) with the mandate to “prevent, combat and investigate … national priority offences”. They are empowered and <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/dpci/index.php">obliged by law</a> to investigate criminal offences, but have no power to investigate anything else.</p>
<p>The latest on the matter saw the Hawks send a <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-08-24-statement-by-minister-of-finance-pravin-gordhan/#.V8Py9Pl97IU">letter</a> to Gordhan demanding his attendance at a meeting on August 25 2016. The letter alleged that Gordhan contravened provisions from three pieces of legislation: the Public Finance Management <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.za/legislation/pfma/act.pdf">Act</a> of 1999, the Contravention of National Strategic Intelligence <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/legis/num_act/nsiaa2002375.pdf">Act</a> of 1994 and the Prevention of Corrupt Activities <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/2004-012.pdf">Act</a> of 2004. None of these allegations provide any basis for an investigation of Gordhan by the Hawks.</p>
<p>Let us start with the allegations arising from the Public Finance Management Act and the National Strategic Intelligence Act. It is important to realise that legislation may prohibit or command certain activity without rendering non-compliance with that prohibition or instruction a crime. In fact, the two provisions to which the Hawks refer in the Public Finance Management Act provide a good example of non-compliance with the law which does not result in a criminal offence. </p>
<p>Sections 1 and 34 of this Act establish what the legal consequence is of “unauthorised expenditure” (which we can read as expenditure not provided for by law). The Act does create crimes in Section 86, and it does so by providing that people who contravene certain provisions of the Act are guilty of an offence. But section 86 does not mention sections 1 or 34. </p>
<p>Turning to the National Strategic Intelligence Act, we see that it creates no offences at all. While we will see below that there is no case to be made that Gordhan did not comply with these provisions, the primary point is that, whether he complied with them or not, it is simply none of the Hawks’ business. </p>
<p>If we turn to the “Prevention of Corrupt Activities Act” we find that no such Act exists. Let us assume that the Hawks meant to refer to the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. The Hawks’ letter refers to sections 3, 4 and 10 of this Act and these sections do, in fact, create crimes. These crimes have specific definitional elements and, as required by the rule of law, the provisions set out these elements in detail. </p>
<p>In summary, these offences consist of a particular act, which must be accompanied by a specific purpose. The act is the giving of some sort of benefit or “gratification” to another person. The purpose must be to influence that person or another person to behave in an unlawful manner.</p>
<h2>No sign of alleged crime?</h2>
<p>The incidents on which the Hawks’ investigation initially appeared to focus were the setting up of a <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2016/06/07/sars-spends-more-than-r23m-on-investigation-of-rogue-unit-by-kpmg">covert unit</a> in the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in 2007 while Gordhan was Commissioner, alleged unlawful interception of communications carried out by this unit, and authorisation of <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/pillay-retirement-entirely-above-board-gordhan-20160824">early retirement</a> and rehiring of one of the SARS officials, Ivan Pillay. </p>
<p>The Hawks letter of August does not mention the unlawful interception of communications. This may well acknowledge that there is no evidence either that there was any interception or, at least, that Gordhan had anything to do with it. But the letter does claim that the setting up of a covert unit contravened the National Strategic Intelligence Act. Further, it claims that by approving the early retirement and rehiring of Pillay, Gordhan breached the Public Finance Management Act and committed the offence of corruption. </p>
<p>As noted above, the National Strategic Management Act does not create any offences. But it also does not prohibit the creation of a covert unit. It prohibits (certain) governmental departments from gathering “departmental intelligence”. The Act itself defines this as intelligence related to “any threat or potential threat to the national security and stability of the Republic”. It does not prohibit undercover investigation of tax fraud or the evasion of excise duties.</p>
<p>If we examine the allegations based on the Public Finance Management Act more closely we are reminded, once again, that the relevant provisions do not create crimes. It is also worth noting that the provisions apply to departments of state, not public entities. SARS is a public entity.</p>
<h2>Giving of a “gratification”</h2>
<p>Finally, let us turn to the allegations based on the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (12 of 2004). Let us assume that Gordhan’s approval of Pillay’s retirement and rehiring were somehow the giving of a “gratification”. The Hawks’ letter does not refer to any evidence to suggest that Gordhan approved this “gratification” in order to influence Pillay to behave unlawfully. It does not, in other words, allege that the definitional requirements of the crime of “corruption” have been met. On the Hawks’ own papers, there is no crime to investigate.</p>
<p>We see, therefore, that the Hawks are prepared to bring allegations against Gordhan which are not only nonsensical, but are <em>obviously</em> nonsensical. They are doing so in a manner which is blatantly outside their powers under law. </p>
<p>Like all crime-fighting agencies in a state governed by the rule of law, the Hawks must build a case against a suspect (without the suspect’s help). Then, when they have reasonable chance of a successful prosecution they must bring that case to court.</p>
<p>At no stage does such an agency have the power to order anybody to appear before it. It may merely invite a suspect to answer questions in order to clarify aspects of the investigation. The Hawks are exercising powers they simply do not have. </p>
<h2>To cooperate or not</h2>
<p>Some commentators, even those who describe the measures against Gordhan as a “witch hunt”, nonetheless suggest that Gordhan should <a href="http://www.fin24.com/Economy/malema-no-reason-to-panic-gordhan-not-guilty-20160824">co-operate</a> with the Hawks. This, they say, will indicate that Gordhan does not consider himself above the law and that he respects the institutions of government. And it will help to establish the facts and thereby sort out the problem. </p>
<p>But if the second narrative is correct – if the Hawks are being used not to investigate crime but to remove a minister who is obstructing Zuma’s personal ambitions – then Gordhan’s cooperation will not achieve any of these goals. The key terms here are good faith and legitimacy. State institutions lose their legitimacy if they act in bad faith. The head of the Hawks, Berning Ntlemeza, has already been found by a court of law to have <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-03-30-state-capture-nhlekos-secret-cabinet-memorandum-unlocks-mystery-of-ntlemezas-appointment-to-lead-the-hawks/#.V8P0u_l97IU">acted in bad faith</a> in his running of the unit. This finding established that Ntlemeza acted with an ulterior motive.</p>
<p>So what does Gordhan achieve by cooperating with this unlawful demand? It may serve to create the impression that the Hawks have a right to summon him (or anyone else), which they do not. It cannot serve to establish his innocence if the Hawks are not interested in whether he is innocent or not. And, if the intention of the Hawks is to harass, discredit or wear him down, it gives them another chance to do so. </p>
<p>There is no evidence to support the narrative that the Hawks are, in good faith, investigating crimes which the minister may have committed. And this brings us to the second narrative, one made more compelling by the court’s findings on Ntlemeza’s integrity.</p>
<p>Gordhan is not claiming to be above the law by refusing to appear before the Hawks. He is, instead, vindicating the law which should protect all people in South Africa – ministers and ordinary citizens alike.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathleen Powell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The battle between South Africa’s finance minister Pravin Gordhan and the country’s elite police unit is once more grabbing headlines. What are the points of law around the matter?Cathleen Powell, Senior Lecturer in Public Law, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/644592016-08-25T14:27:40Z2016-08-25T14:27:40ZNew move against Gordhan suggests South Africa’s laws are under threat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135539/original/image-20160825-6609-4r9dj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa's finance minister Pravin Gordhan.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Edgard Garrido</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>South Africa’s elite police unit, the <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/dpci/index.php">Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation</a> also know as the Hawks, this week summoned the country’s <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.za/ministry/minister.aspx">Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan</a> to appear at its offices to receive a warning statement. The minister is reportedly the prime target of a Hawks investigation into an alleged rogue South African Revenue Service intelligence-gathering <a href="http://www.financialmail.co.za/coverstory/2016/05/26/sars-rogue-unit-untangling-the-helix">unit</a>. Gordhan <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2016/08/25/hawks-have-no-case-says-gordhan">refused</a>. Most observers see this as part of a <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2016/08/25/news-analysis-mission-is-to-create-narrative-justifying-pravin-gordhans-removal">plot</a> to oust Gordhan as the country’s finance minster and that the Hawks are acting at the behest of President Jacob Zuma. The Conversation Africa’s Charles Leonard asked Raymond Suttner to make sense of it all.</em></p>
<p><strong>What is behind this battle between the Hawks and Pravin Gordhan?</strong></p>
<p>As I see it, the Hawks are acting on behalf of President Zuma in the guise of law enforcement. According to legal experts, there does not seem to be any <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2016-08-25-why-the-hawks-dont-have-a-case-against-pravin-gordhan">basis</a> for criminal charges against Gordhan and the other former South African Revenue Service employees. This should be seen in the context of the <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/economy/2016/08/23/zuma-to-oversee-parastatal-strategy">various attempts</a> by Zuma to prevent the National Treasury from regulating state owned entities, notably South African Airways; but also others where there appear to be irregularities and where Gordhan has sought to have <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2016/07/27/saa-needs-whole-new-board-says-pravin-gordhan">new board members</a> appointed, and in the case of the airline a new chairperson.</p>
<p>It may sound crude, but it does appear that Gordhan and the National Treasury more generally stand as a barrier preventing wholesale <a href="http://www.rdm.co.za/politics/2016/02/29/pravin-gordhan--a-man-among-zuma-s-mice">looting</a> of state resources. For some time, maybe the entire period since 1994 (when South Africa became a democracy), the Treasury has maintained a level of professional autonomy and insulation from some of the <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/struggle-is-for-state-power-2000195">divisions</a> that have run through other state departments. It has been known to get a job done on a basis that conforms to what is required according to applicable regulations. That standard ought to be observed by all ministries and departments, but that’s not the case.</p>
<p>There is an ideological element in that Gordhan is trying to <a href="http://www.financialmail.co.za/coverstory/2016/05/26/exclusive-gordhan-on-that-arrest-and-averting-a-downgrade">run the economy</a> in a manner that attracts investors, conforms to investors’ expectations and that will stabilise the economy. That has a downside, which does not concern Zuma or the Hawks, in that the investors are not necessarily friendly to the poor. Stability for the investors means “market friendly”. </p>
<p>But at this moment whether we are sympathetic to the poor or not, there is a need for macroeconomic stability and what is happening threatens that. What appears to be intended – to remove Gordhan or undermine the Treasury - threatens that.</p>
<p>But it is not ideological in the sense that it is an attempt to cream off state resources in ways that may be both irregular and illegal. The Hawks are thus acting in a manner that has little to do with legality and everything to do with furthering the president and his allies’ goals - to <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/08/25/SACP-labels-Hawks-leadership-thugs-for-going-after-Gordhan">accumulate</a> personal wealth, at the expense of state resources and the taxpayers.</p>
<p><strong>Can anyone else bring sense and salvage this situation?</strong></p>
<p>There is a mystique that has been created by the media and sections of business around the powers and capacity of Deputy President <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=7604">Cyril Ramaphosa</a>. </p>
<p>I think we should be cautious about attributing messianic qualities to any individual. Certainly Ramaphosa may not be corrupt and may be able to exist as a leader without the need to cream off state resources. But is there any possibility of his becoming leader? What is his support base outside the media and business? Also, whoever becomes leader enters a situation where she or he is now expected to service patronage relationships. </p>
<p>In my view, something more than a change of leader is required to change the patronage-based character of ANC politics.</p>
<p><strong>This looks like a battle to the end with no consideration for the consequences. Is that a fair assessment?</strong></p>
<p>What appears to emerge from the <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-12-09-nhlanhla-nene-removed-as-finance-minister">firing</a> of former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in December 2015 and the current situation is that Zuma does not care much about what happens to the economy, or with rating agencies. He seems at once very hands off and simultaneously a very focused man. He is slow to make decisions but he is single minded in some respects. He is concerned about himself and his own well-being, whatever price the taxpayers and the country and its laws have to pay. No price is too great for others to pay to meet his avarice.</p>
<p>It is by no means clear that his appetite has been satisfied and he may well be trying to take as much as he can before he leaves office. At the same time he wants to have a successor who can be relied on to do what is necessary to avert a prosecution. Ramaphosa does not appear to be trusted to ensure that.</p>
<p><strong>Who will be the biggest winners and losers?</strong></p>
<p>As I see it in the short run the country will lose and stands the chance of going down the drain economically. But we are not powerless. It is very important that interested parties – and we are all interested parties – should exert what influence they can to thwart these plans. Business, notably the banks, played a role in securing the removal of <a href="http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2016/05/11/des-van-rooyens-stint-as-finance-minister-wiped-r95bn-off-state-pensions">Des van Rooyen</a> as Finance Minister and the <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2015/12/13/zuma-brings-back-gordhan-drops-van-rooyen">return</a> of Gordhan.</p>
<p>I think the future of this country as a democracy and stable economy can be retrieved if South Africans find ways of building unity around agreed values. Under apartheid, legality connoted denial of rights. Under the present order we have a rights-based constitution. It defends the rights of all. </p>
<p>That is why it is important that South Africans defend the country’s laws and constitution. That is what is in the interests of the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. Neither benefits from the lawlessness and looting. </p>
<p>There needs to be a way of combining their strengths, and finding ways of building unity in broad organisations, not simply NGOs and other interest groups. South Africa needs to have people out there as members of an organised force defending and building on what it gained in 1994.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raymond Suttner's most recent book is Recovering Democracy in South Africa (Jacana Media, 2015).</span></em></p>The pursual of South Africa’s finance minister by the country’s elite police unit could have dire consequences for the economy. Yet President Jacob Zuma appears not to care.Raymond Suttner, Emeritus Professor, University of South Africa and part-time professor, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/644412016-08-25T08:28:20Z2016-08-25T08:28:20ZSouth African academics ask Zuma to ‘stop the war’ on finance minister<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135476/original/image-20160825-6595-1v9vudw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is a hunted man.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mujahid Safodien/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>South Africa’s minister of finance Pravin Gordhan is again on <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-08-24-statement-by-minister-of-finance-pravin-gordhan/#.V76eh5h9600">a collision</a> course with the country’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations. The row has <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-pravin-gordhan-the-latest-news-20160825">unsettled</a> the country’s already shaky currency, the rand. It’s also prompted a group of senior academics from nine universities to pen an <a href="http://www.rdm.co.za/business/2016/08/24/stop-the-war-on-pravin-gordhan">open letter</a>. The letter, which first appeared on local news site the <a href="http://www.rdm.co.za/">Rand Daily Mail</a>, is republished below.</em></p>
<p>“In December 2015 the shocking decision by President Jacob Zuma to <a href="http://nenegate.biznews.com/">fire</a> Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene led about 70 senior academic economists from across South African universities to write an <a href="https://theconversation.com/academics-in-south-africa-voice-their-dismay-at-zumas-actions-52313">open letter</a> to the Business Day to express our outrage at the capriciousness of that decision. We also warned of the likely consequences for the country’s fragile economy. </p>
<p>That that decision was politically motivated has been borne out by subsequent events. Significantly, Mr Nene’s <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2016/04/13/nenes-brics-job-still-a-mystery">redeployment</a> to the Brics Bank, ostensibly the reason for his removal, has not materialised. The President continues to use every platform to <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2016/02/22/zuma-says-van-rooyen-was-administrations-most-qualified-finance-minister">sing the praises</a> of the little known backbencher he appointed in Nene’s place. He also frequently expresses bitterness at the role of (so called) white monopoly capitalists whom he claims forced a <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2015/12/13/zuma-brings-back-gordhan-drops-van-rooyen">reversal</a> of his decision to appoint Desmond van Rooyen.</p>
<p>At the time and in the circumstances, some commentators thought that the new Minister Pravin Gordhan would be safe from similar politically motivated attacks. How wrong they were. Since earlier this year, Minister Gordhan has been subjected to an unrelenting attack from the Hawks. They have been investigating the Minister’s alleged role in the establishment of the so-called "rogue” spy unit when he was the South African Revenue Services’ (SARS) Commissioner. A few days ago the Daily Maverick <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-08-23-breaking-sars-wars-endgame-hawks-order-pravin-gordhan-and-others-to-present-themselves/">reported</a> that the Hawks were “circling” the Minister again.</p>
<p>These events have once again compelled us to put pen to paper to express our outrage and warn of the dangers to our still very fragile economy. There are predictions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-can-expect-zero-growth-its-problems-are-largely-homemade-62943">zero growth</a> in 2016; stubbornly <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/05/09/SA-unemployment-rate-rises">high unemployment</a>; persistent poverty and inequality and a volatile currency. This is not the time – if there ever was – to be playing such dangerous games with the lives and well-being of all sectors of our economy and society, especially the poor and the vulnerable. </p>
<p>We say all this with the same qualifiers we employed in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/academics-in-south-africa-voice-their-dismay-at-zumas-actions-52313">December 2015 letter</a>. These include our recognition that Ministers of Finance do not enjoy any special privileges or protection. Everyone is subject to the rule of law and the <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng.pdf">Constitution</a>. Finally, our stance does not mean that all of us share with equal enthusiasm the Treasury and government’s fiscal framework.</p>
<p>We urge the President, the Cabinet and the African National Congress’ National Executive Committee (NEC) to assist in bringing this dangerous set of events to an end in the best way possible in the interests of our country and our economy. It is time for real leaders in the NEC, the Cabinet and in governing alliance partners the SA Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions to stand up to the tyrannical and despotic behaviour on display here. Yet again we stand on the edge of an economic precipice.</p>
<p>We end expressing by similar sentiments to those used in our December 2015 letter: As senior academics in Economics and related disciplines we express our unambiguous and urgent concern both about these events in general, about the unseemly attacks on the Minister of Finance and about the general lack of progress in tackling the massive and growing crisis of low growth, poverty, unemployment and inequality as well as the crisis of governance at our state owned enterprises.“</p>
<p>Collectively supported by:</p>
<p><strong>University of Cape Town</strong></p>
<p>Professor Haroon Bhorat, Professor Anthony Black, Professor Faizel Ismail, Professor Murray Leibbrandt, Professor Martin Wittenberg, Professor Ingrid Woolard, Professor Alan Hirsh, Professor Cally Ardington, Professor Christopher Rooney, Dr Co-Pierre Georg, Professor David Kaplan, Professor Don Ross, Mr Grant Smith, Ms Katherine Eyal, Ms Kezia Lilenstein, Professor Lawrence Edwards, Associate Professor Malcolm Keswell, Associate Professor Mark Ellyne, Professor Martine Visser, Professor Mike Morris, Mr Morne Oosthuizen, Professor Nicoli Nattrass, Associate Professor Tony Leiman, Toughedah Jacobs, Sarah Marriott, Adaiah Lilenstein, Jabulile Monnakgotla, Amy Thornton, Shakira Jeppie, Associate Professor Justine Burns</p>
<p><strong>University of Pretoria</strong></p>
<p>Professor Steve Koch, Professor Elsabe Loots, Professor Riel Franzsen, Professor James Blignaut, Professor Jan van Heerden</p>
<p><strong>Sol Plaatje University</strong></p>
<p>Botho Enele and Mandla Mthembu</p>
<p><strong>Rhodes University</strong></p>
<p>Professor Robert van Niekerk</p>
<p><strong>North West University</strong></p>
<p>Wilma Viviers</p>
<p><strong>University of Stellenbosch</strong></p>
<p>Servaas van der Berg, Stan du Plessis, Rulof P Burger, Nick Vink, Theo Kleynhans, Professor Andrie Schoombee, Professor Estian Calitz, Professor Ada Jansen, Professor Johan Fourie, Professor Ben Smit, Professor Ronelle Burger, Professor Johann Kirsten</p>
<p><strong>University of the Western Cape</strong></p>
<p>Julian May</p>
<p><strong>University of Witwatersrand</strong></p>
<p>Professor Imraan Valodia, Professor Vishnu Padayachee, Dr Gareth Roberts, Fatima Bhoola, David Francis, Associate Professor Daniela Casale, Professor Dori Posel, Lumkile Mondi, Nimisha Naik, Associate Professor Uma Kollamparambil, Kenneth Creamer</p>
<p><strong>Private Sector</strong></p>
<p>Iraj Abedian – Chief Economist, Pan-African Investment & Research Services</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A row between South Africa’s finance minister and the country’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations has prompted academics to pen an open letter asking President Jacob Zuma to intervene.Natasha Joseph, Commissioning EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/629882016-08-23T17:27:23Z2016-08-23T17:27:23ZThe watchdog over South Africa’s elite police unit is in serious need of teeth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134305/original/image-20160816-13007-1rdisja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa's elite police unit, the Hawks, block a street during an operation.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Independent Media/Picture:Bhekikhaya Mabaso</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Organised crime emerged as a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10246029.1999.9628018">threat</a> to the new South African state during the political transition from apartheid to democracy in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10246029.1999.9628018">1990s</a>. As such, the new government, led by the African National Congress <a href="http://www.anc.org.za/">(ANC)</a>, was under pressure to address the growing problem.</p>
<p>During this transition period the then South African Police <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/">(SAP)</a> changed from a police “force” that bolstered the apartheid state to a democratic <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2013.767094">“police service”</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the new <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/">South African Police Service</a> was not equipped to tackle organised crime. This prompted then-president Thabo Mbeki to launch a specialised law enforcement unit to investigate and prosecute serious organised crime. Launched in 1999, they were known as the <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/5028672">Scorpions</a>.</p>
<p>Ten years later the Scorpions were controversially dissolved and replaced by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known colloquially as the <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/dpci/index.php">Hawks</a>. The move, linked to a multi-billion dollar <a href="http://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/timeline-of-the-arms-deal/">arms deal scandal</a> which revealed systemic bribery and corruption that implicated top ANC politicians, pointed to the politicisation of law enforcement.</p>
<p>The establishment of the Hawks, as well as various oversight mechanisms, has failed to allay fears that the country’s security apparatus are being held to account. Shortcomings in one of the oversight bodies, the <a href="http://www.dpcijudge.gov.za/">Office of the Judge</a>, is of particular concern. </p>
<p>This much became obvious in a recent stand-off between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Hawks regarding investigations into the alleged rogue unit at the <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2016-02-26-gordhan-threatens-to-go-to-court-as-tensions-with-sars-ripple">South African Revenue Services</a>. </p>
<h2>Overseeing the police</h2>
<p>It was clear to the first post-apartheid government, headed by Nelson Mandela, that political influence would weaken specialised law enforcement institutions and undermine constitutional democracy. His government understood why powerful watchdogs were crucial. </p>
<p>In a bid to increase the legitimacy of the police, the government created oversight structures to hold them accountable. In 1997 the <a href="http://www.icd.gov.za/">Independent Police Investigative Directorate</a>, previously known as the <a href="http://www.icd.gov.za/">Independent Complaints Directorate</a>, was established to investigate serious complaints of abuse by the South African Police Service. </p>
<p>In 2010 another accountability mechanism for members of the <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/dpci/index.php">Hawks</a> was set up – the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation <a href="http://www.dpcijudge.gov.za/">Judge Complaints Unit</a>, also known as the Office of the Judge.</p>
<p>The police minister <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/legislation/acts/act68of1995.pdf">is mandated</a> to elect a retired judge to receive and investigate complaints from:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>any member of the public who can provide evidence of a serious and unlawful infringement of his or her rights caused by an investigation by the Hawks; or</p></li>
<li><p>any member of the Hawks who can provide evidence of any improper influence or interference, whether of a political or any other nature, exerted upon him or her regarding the conducting of an investigation.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>It was important to allow members of the public to lay complaints as the police service has struggled to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2013.767094">overcome its apartheid legacy</a>. Deputy police minister Makhotso Maggie Sotyu <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/resource_centre/publications/police_mag/police_jan_2015.pdf">said as much</a> when she commented that the Office of the Judge was important for the South African Police Services to gain legitimacy in the eyes of society:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We must create an environment in which the community can trust the police.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Apart from the presiding judge, the office has two investigators, a professional assistant and an administrator.</p>
<h2>New mechanism, old problem?</h2>
<p>The main criticism of the Office of the Judge is that it lacks the power to initiate investigations. Investigations only commence on <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/legislation/acts/act68of1995.pdf">“receipt of a complaint”</a>. This is unlike another watchdog, the Office of the <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/about/democracy/pubprotect.htm#.V7LLC0197IU">Public Protector</a>, which has the authority to take up cases based on complaints, as well as to initiate investigations itself. </p>
<p>The recent controversial stand-off between Gordhan and the Hawks about investigations into the so-called rogue unit at <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/stnews/2016/05/15/Pravin-Gordhan-faces-imminent-arrest">South African Revenue Services</a> highlights the limitations of the judge’s lack of powers to initiate investigations.</p>
<p>Gordhan claimed that the Hawks were being used to <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.za/comm_media/press/2016/2016031501%20-%20HawksResponse.pdf">malign</a> him over events that took place under his watch as the former head of the revenue body. At the time he was trying to reestablish confidence in the National Treasury following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-removal-of-south-africas-finance-minister-is-bad-news-for-the-country-52170">“Nenegate scandal”</a> amid allegations it had been targeted for state capture with the help of President Jacob Zuma.</p>
<p>In the absence of Gordhan laying a complaint, the judge’s hands were tied as he could not, off his own bat, investigate the minister’s claim. The fact that Gordhan did not complain to the Office of the Judge speaks volumes about the <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/gordhan-can-approach-hawks-watchdog-judge-20160315">lack of confidence in its effectiveness</a>. It also shows why it’s important that the office be able to initiate investigations.</p>
<p>Another problem is that the office receives too few complaints to be effective. Over the 2013-14 period it received only five complaints, one of which fell outside its mandate. </p>
<p>This may be due to the overlap between the mandate of the Office of the Judge and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate. As Judge Moosa said in an interview with the author in 2015:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There should be proper co-ordination and rationalisation between these structures in order to serve the public efficiently and effectively. The public should also be educated and informed of the mandate of these structures to empower them to lay complaints with the right institution.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Political interference and oversight</h2>
<p>There are other shortcomings too. The appointment process does not provide sufficient safeguards against political interference. The judge is appointed by the police minister in consultation with the justice minister and the <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/legislation/acts/act68of1995.pdf">chief justice</a>. It is not clear what form the consultation should take, nor how has veto power over whom.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.saps.gov.za/legislation/acts/act68of1995.pdf">SAPS Act</a> says the judge “shall report the outcome of any investigation undertaken by him or her or any referral to the minister”. This fails to clarify two important points that have an effect on the office’s functioning. </p>
<p>First, it is not clear how the results of the investigations will be determined. </p>
<p>Second, the judge has no powers to enforce findings and can only give the minister a report with recommendations. The inability to enforce its findings arguably makes the Office of the Judge a toothless oversight body. </p>
<p>The enabling act mandates the judge to report to parliament annually. Even though this may provide the opportunity for all political parties to debate the performance or non performance of the judge, they have no jurisdiction over the incumbent. </p>
<p>Another shortcoming is that the act does not specify the term of office for the judge. It also does not outline a procedure for the judge’s removal from office. This is highly disconcerting given the <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2016-05-17-mcbride-dramat-pillay-claim-there-is-a-political-conspiracy">politicisation</a> of law enforcement in South Africa. </p>
<p>Specialised law enforcement agencies such as the Hawks are invaluable in the fight against serious organised crime and corruption. But it is just as important that they go about their work in ways that are above board. It is thus crucially important to address the shortcomings of the Office of the Judge so that it can effectively carry out its oversight role.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mafaro Kasipo receives funding from the National Research Foundation</span></em></p>The main criticism leveled at the body that oversees the work of South Africa’s elite police unit, the Hawks, is that it lacks the power to initiate investigations, making it ineffective.Mafaro Kasipo, PhD Candidate, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.