Axed prosecutions head Vusi Pikoli accuses President Kgalema Motlanthe of firing him in an effort to protect Jacob Zuma, in papers filed with the Pretoria High Court this morning.

In the papers, which form part of Pikoli's urgent legal bid to stop Motlanthe appointing his successor as National Director of Public Prosecutions, Pikoli said he suspected that Motlanthe had "acted with an ulterior purpose when he dismissed me".

The interdict also forms part of Pikoli's application for the decision to axe him to be reviewed and set aside.

Pikoli said circumstantial evidence around his dismissal "gives rise to an overwhelming inference that President Motlanthe did not act in good faith".

He said he did not have "any direct evidence of his ulterior purpose and I cannot say with confidence exactly what it was".

Pointing out that the Ginwala Commission, which probed his fitness to hold office, had found that he was a fit and proper person for his position, Pikoli said the president had "fundamentally misconstrued" the inquiry's final report on his competency.

As a basis for his dismissal, Motlanthe used concerns raised by Ginwala over Pikoli's reluctance to give then president Thabo Mbeki two weeks to prepare for the Scorpions' arrest of police boss Jackie Selebi - despite this never having been raised as a complaint against him by the government.

"But not only was (Dr Frene Ginwala's) criticism unfounded, the president moreover fundamentally misconstrued it and then used it as a springboard from which he made unwarranted inferential leaps to come to his conclusion that I was not fit for office.

"I submit that this contorted reasoning to conclude that I should be removed from office, in the face of Dr Ginwala's recommendation the other way, smacks of bad faith and an ulterior purpose."

Pikoli's legal team asked that the Presidency undertake not to appoint a new prosecutions head until his application was finalised.

But Presidency spokesman Thabo Masebe said this morning that Motlanthe's office had refused to do so.

"The post (of National Director of Public Prosecutions) is vacant and there is no interdict or law that stops the president from filling it *1.

"We respect Mr Pikoli's right to challenge his dismissal in court, but until such time that there is an order of the court interdicting us … we will continue (with the appointment process) *2."

Pikoli's legal team served papers on the State Attorney's office yesterday afternoon - within minutes of the National Council of Provinces agreeing that the NDPP should go.

Masebe said he could not give an indication of how swiftly the president would move in replacing Pikoli. Whoever takes over as NDPP will be the person who has to take a decision on whether or not corruption charges against Zuma should go ahead. - Additional Reporting by Gaye Davis

With acknowledgements to Karyn Maughan and Cape Argus.