Motlanthe Decides Pikoli Should Go [Sapa, 2008-12-08]

Publication: Sapa Issued: Johannesburg Date: 2008-12-08 Reporter: Sapa

Motlanthe Decides Pikoli Should Go

Publication	Sapa BC-GINWALA-3RD-LD-REPORT
Issued	Johannesburg
Date	2008-12-08
Reporter	Sapa

President Kgalema Motlanthe has decided to fire Vusi Pikoli as National Director of Public Prosecutions.

"I have come to the determination that advocate Pikoli should be relieved of his responsibility as the country's national director of public prosecutions," Motlanthe said at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

Motlanthe said Pikoli's professional competence was not in question.

"However it should be noted that the requisite skills would necessarily include professional competence as well as those outlined by the inquiry in particular, appreciation for and sensitivity to, matters of national security."

According to the NPA Act, Motlanthe will communicate his decision and all relevant background information to Parliament within 30 days. Parliament then either confirms or rejects Motlanthe's decision.

Former president Thabo Mbeki suspended Pikoli on September 23 last year, citing a breakdown in relations between Pikoli and former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla and a poor appreciation of national security among the terms of reference for a later inquiry into his fitness to hold office.

Pikoli however said it was because his office planned to arrest National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi for corruption.

The inquiry itself held that the case for a breakdown in relations had not been established and their interaction was marred by differences in understanding of the respective duties and responsibilities of each office with regard to the prosecuting authority.

These could be overcome by "collegial discussion" Ginwala recommended.

Justice department director general Menzi Simelane was criticised, with the report saying: "In general his conduct left much to be desired. His testimony was contradictory and without basis in fact and in law."

During the inquiry Pikoli had to defence himself on his approach to national security.

He had to answer for the lack of security accreditation for his officials tasked with searching former deputy president Jacob Zuma's office during investigations against him and that he appeared to ignore a draft report known as the "Browse Mole" report, alleging a foreign-funded coup to bring Zuma to power.

The prosecutions authority's entering into plea bargain arrangements with people involved in organised crime was also queried.

During the inquiry, Ginwala heard that Mbeki, who resigned in September partly over inferences of an inappropriately close relationship with prosecution authorities, had needed time to make security arrangements before Selebi was arrested.

Mbeki said he needed two weeks and Pikoli had offered one.

With acknowledgements toGiordano Stolley and Sapa.

*1 I have come to the determination that Advocate Pikoli should not be relieved of his responsibility as the country's national director of public prosecutions.

But then I am neither the President of the country, nor its Parliament's chief spokesperson.

however, there is dilemma and dichotomy surrounding this Enquiry and its outcome.

The Enquiry was about the incumbent's fitness for office and this goes mainly about why then President Mbeki suspended him.

These are the bottom lines :

the basis advanced by Government for the suspension of Adv Pikoli had not been established through the evidence submitted to the Enquiry; and

the basis advanced by Adv Pikoli for the suspension of Adv Pikoli had rejected by the Enquiry.

By inference, Thabo Mbeki and Brigitte Mabandla could never be believed, but we always knew that. It is one of the reasons neither of them are still in office.

Also by inference, Adv Pikoli was very clear about his reasons for being suspended, but the Enquiry has clearly rejected that. Neitrher the facts nor the logic supported Pikoli reasoning.

So it means that not only that the Enquiry failed in its primary purpose, but that Adv Pikoli might not be smelling completely of roses.

In fact, I would say that his reasons given that he was suspended entirely due to his insistence on arresting Chief Chacma Baboon after one week rather than two weeks is bullshit. Now bulllshit is not the most malodorous thing in the entire world (that is either the den of the Tasmanian Devil or the armpit of a Thomson-CSF executive after a long night of garlic escargot followed by a long day of cross-examination in the witness box), but its does put one's credibility to the test.

Now President Motlanthe is a wily beast himself and has long been in the thick of all things driving the matters at hand.

So he came up with some bullshit of his own (or more likely from Munjo Gumbo) that :

"More significantly, I formed the view that Advocate Pikoli's representations exhibited a failure on his part to acknowledge the serious deficiencies identified by the Enquiry."

Such are the wages of a failure to convince.