Used security agency for raids  

Justice bosses want suspended prosecuting head Vusi Pikoli permanently axed, and have given the Ginwala Commission 11 reasons why they think he should go.

But Pikoli's legal team have hit back by stating that he "prefers" that the case against him and his response to the claims against him be heard in public.

"We won't comment on the case against Mr Pikoli at this point … we may reconsider that position once we have prepared our response, and we would prefer that the case against him is heard in the open," Pikoli's attorney, Aslam Moosajee, told The Star yesterday.

Essentially arguing that Pikoli had taken the National Prosecuting Authority's independence from the government too far, Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla and director-general Menzi Simelane have criticised the NPA's handling of its investigations into ANC president Jacob Zuma and National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi.

The complaints by Mabandla and Simelane are expected to provide Zuma and Selebi's legal teams with fresh ammunition in their pending legal battles to have the corruption cases against them permanently halted.

Advocate Fanus Coetzee, who is acting for Selebi, yesterday told The Star that the police boss's legal team was still considering asking for access to the state's complaints against Pikoli.

"We are keeping a close eye on any and all relevant documentation," he said.

The Star has also established that Zuma's legal team will this week try to obtain access to the state's complaints about the Scorpions' probe.

In addition to Mabandla's unhappiness over Pikoli's alleged failure to inform her about the Selebi warrant, sources have confirmed that the complaints against him, which are contained in submissions given to the Ginwala Commission almost two weeks ago, include the following:

That the Scorpions used a private security agency when they conducted their controversial August 2005 raids on premises related to the Zuma corruption investigation.

Justice bosses have raised security concerns over allegations that the agency participated in raids on the Union Buildings and Tuynhuys Mbeki's Cape Town residence.

The warrants used to conduct these raids, which netted 93 000 documents used to compile a massive forensic audit into Zuma's financial affairs, are currently the subject of a Constitutional Court appeal bid.

nPikoli's handling of the Scorpions-authored "Special Browse Mole Report", which alleged foreign leaders such as Angola's José Eduardo dos Santos and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi had offered to back Zuma financially.

The government rubbished the report, which was compiled from information provided by private intelligence sources, as apartheid-linked disinformation.

nPikoli's request to the Treasury that the Scorpions be listed as a public entity a move apparently interpreted as an attempt to separate the Scorpions from the prosecuting authority without Mabandla's knowledge. Simelane was vehemently opposed to this move.

Ginwala Commission spokesperson Lawson Naidoo said yesterday that the body was negotiating with Pikoli's lawyers about when they would be able to hand in their response to the state's case.

Ginwala has yet to announce whether the inquiry's hearing will be open to the public.

Pikoli was suspended by President Thabo Mbeki after the NPA's Scorpions unit obtained an arrest warrant against Selebi. According to the Presidency, the suspension was motivated by the alleged breakdown in the relationship between Mabandla and Pikoli.

Four days later, Mbeki appointed Ginwala to head an inquiry into this "breakdown" and Pikoli's fitness to hold office.

This includes whether, when he granted immunity from prosecution or entered into plea-bargain deals with criminals, he took "due regard to the public interest and the national security interest".

This is an apparent reference to the state's conclusion of Section 204 witness agreements with the hitmen allegedly responsible for Brett Kebble's murder, which then allowed prosecutors to negotiate a plea agreement with Glenn Agliotti, the alleged main witness in Selebi's pending corruption trial.

In his Pretoria High Court bid to have the NPA's decision to charge him overturned, Selebi seemingly echoed Mabandla's and Simelane's complaints that Pikoli had failed to keep the relevant government ministers as well as Mbeki informed of developments in the case against him.

With acknowledgements to Karyn Maughan and The Star.