The president told Parliament last month that he planned to establish the capacity in order to deal with the high number of cases emanating from state capture investigations.

South Africa last had such capacity in the Scorpions, which was shut down in 2007 following an African National Congress (ANC) resolution.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)'s Bulelwa Makheke was unable to say how the new investigative directorate would be comprised, saying only that is was still being set up and such details would be revealed in due course.

The Presidency said that the unit will focus on corruption cases, specifically those emanating from the various commissions of inquiry.

A prosecutor who spoke to Eyewitness News said that it will probably not be anything like the Scorpions in both size and mandate.

The prosecutor said that there are already dedicated units such as the anti-corruption task team which works with the specialised commercial crimes unit, so this new unit would be highly specialised.

The advocate said that there must be proper screening and assessments of whoever is appointed to the unit.

EWN