CAPE TOWN — President Thabo Mbeki is not planning to tell South Africans just why he suspended the national director of public prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli.

Amid increasing uncertainty and speculation about the real reasons, Mbeki’s spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said yesterday from New York that there is no indication that the president will make any statement on the issue before a commission of inquiry into the functioning of the director.

Mbeki’s silence led to all sorts of rumours yesterday, including that Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi will be next to be suspended; that the ANC succession battle is behind Pikoli’s fate, and that private security firms are the next target, to name but a few.

Inquiries with several well-placed sources confirmed that these and other allegations are being widely circulated, but cannot be confirmed.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko put the official view thus: “People shouldn’t listen to rumours. When the prosecuting authority was investigating the activities of Glenn Agliotti [Selebi’s friend] it was announced that the police chief was also being investigated … It’s impossible for us to tell if the police chief is still under investigation. Advocate Pikoli’s suspension will have no influence on that investigation.”

So far, the only official reason given for the suspension has been a breakdown of the trust between Pikoli and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla.

That was also the explanation given to the very sceptical leaders of opposition parties when they were summoned to the Union Buildings in Pretoria for a briefing by the director-general of the Presidency, Frank Chikane, on Tuesday.

Sapa reported Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Sandra Botha as saying: “We appreciate the fact that we have been called but we would have appreciated it more if we had been told why this drastic step has been taken”.

With acknowledgements to Jan-Jan Joubert, Erika Gibson and The Witness.