When the Scorpions were up for grabs at Judge Sisi Khampepe’s commission in October 2005, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Vusi Pikoli said ‘I do”­and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla retorted ‘I don’t”.

This week’s formal divorce of the two was long in the making.

It was during the hearings of the Khampepe Commission to determine the future of the Scorpions­formally known as the Directorate of Special Operations­that the strain between South Africa’s law enforcement agencies and their political bosses was exposed for all to see.

On October 6 2005, Mabandla, through senior counsel Dabi Khumalo, told the commission the elite unit had lost its relevance, that the relationship between it and the South African Police Service had ‘irretrievably broken down”, and that she would be to happy to see the unit moved from the NPA to the police.

Her submission clearly jolted Pikoli and other NPA officials in attendance. The metaphor of a mother abandoning her star child did the rounds.

Eight months later, on June 29 last year, the Director General in the Presidency, Frank Chikane, publicised Khampepe’s report in a three-page summary. It dismissed all Mabandla’s arguments and argued for the preservation of the Scorpions in its current form­except its law enforcement abilities, which would now be subject to the safety and security minister’s political oversight.

It even recommended that the capacity of police units should be enhanced by ‘investing them with the same legal powers of the DSO and co-locating prosecutors with its investigators and analysts”.

President Thabo Mbeki accepted the recommendations, and amendments to the NPA Act are currently being drafted.

Khampepe reprimanded Pikoli, SAPS Commissioner Jackie Selebi and the axed director general of the National Intelligence Agency, Billy Masetlha, for their infighting, and Mabandla ordered them to meet within three weeks and devise a system for improved cooperation. Whether this happened is unknown.

Mbeki has since fired Masetlha; Selebi is deeply implicated in the Scorpions’ investigation of slain mining magnet Brett Kebble and Kebble’s business partners; and Pikoli has been suspended.

It is clear that the ‘working relationship” between Pikoli and Mabandla was never repaired­that, according to Mbeki, was why Pikoli was suspended.

‘The president considers the relationship between the minister and the NDPP [National Directorate of Public Prosecutions] central to the effective administration of justice and the smooth functioning of the [NPA],” the government explained. ‘The relationship breakdown had adverse implications for the NPA and the functioning of the criminal justice system.”

It did not elaborate on the ‘adverse implications” and NPA insiders are adamant that there are none. They argue that the NPA, and specifically the Scorpions, has produced results, with 85% of cases leading to convictions, and that it has been one of the few shining lights in Mabandla’s justice portfolio.

Mabandla could no longer work with a colleague who only communicated with her ‘after the fact”, a justice department source told the Mail & Guardian. ‘Pikoli never felt that he was required to report to her. He saw it as a courtesy thing.”

This was in contrast to the relationship between former NPA boss Bulelani Ngcuka and Mabandla’s predecessor, Penuell Maduna. ‘She [Mabandla] was treated [by Pikoli] like a rubber-stamp. Why should she have protected the Scorpions if they didn’t report to her? You can’t blame her for not feeling the need to protect them,” the source said.

A former senior NPA employee countered by saying Mabandla could not be trusted with operational secrets.

Who is Mokotedi Mpshe?

Vusi Pikoli’s acting replacement, Mokotedi (Cocky) Mpshe, is an advocate by training whose career has been troubled by controversy­including charges of misconduct brought by the Pretoria Bar Council.

In 1999 Mpshe was found guilty on four charges of misconduct and it was recommended that he be struck from the roll of advocates. He appealed and a 15-member Bar Council over-turned the verdict in respect of three charges.

He admitted guilt on one charge­of failing on four occasions to appear in court to represent clients in 1996. The other charges related to his buying a Mercedes-Benz from a murderer he represented in 1992.

Mpshe began his legal career in 1978 as a prosecutor in the Bophuthatswana homeland, where he later served as a magistrate. From 1989 to 1994 he lectured in law at the Northern Transvaal Technikon in Soshanguve and at Vista University in Mamelodi.

He was admitted to the Pretoria Bar in 1992 and received senior counsel status 10 years later.

Between 1996 and 1998 Mpshe was chief leader of evidence for the truth commission in Gauteng and handled high-profile cases, including the amnesty application of Chris Hani’s murderers.

In 1998 he was appointed director of public prosecutions for KwaZulu-Natal, where he was credited with having turned around the province’s prosecuting services. His work there caught the eye of President Thabo Mbeki *1.

However, he was perceived as being close to the ANC, and the IFP criticised his appointment as ‘political”.

In 2002 he was appointed director of public prosecutions for the Transvaal provincial division. He moved to the NPA in April last year, where he was appointed deputy national director with national prosecutions services as portfolio.

With acknowledgement to Adriaan Basson and Mail & Guardian.