Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Official reasons met with scorn and disbelief

A fresh row has erupted over the official reasons given for the suspension of Vusi Pikoli, head of the National Prosecuting Authority.

Senior prosecutors and NPA staff have reacted with disbelief and shock to a Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) statement, in which Pikoli’s suspension was blamed on his poor working relationship with Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla.

Now the NPA wants the chance to give its side of the story, in a “concise” statement compiled by senior prosecuting management and due to be released this morning.

While unwilling to detail exactly what the statement would say, the authority’s spokesperson, Tladi Tladi, said yesterday: “The only statement that has been released was released by the GCIS … now the NPA would like the chance to make its own statement.”

Meanwhile, sources within the prosecuting body say it was Pikoli’s refusal to back down from several high-profile investigations – linked to National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, as well as the controversial arms deal – that saw him facing the axe.

It was not because he had “failed to control the Scorpions”, as was claimed in some reports.

Pikoli’s suspension comes within months of President Thabo Mbeki’s reported intervention, at Pikoli’s request, in the “war” between the Directorate of Special Operations (also known as the Scorpions) and Selebi over files that may implicate the police chief and his friend Glenn Agliotti.

Mbeki was involved after Selebi refused the elite unit access to files and documents held by the SA Police Service’s Crime Intelligence Unit on Agliotti, Selebi’s friend and the man arrested over the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble.

The president reportedly resolved the dispute by instructing the Scorpions that they would be allowed to have access, as opposed to search and seizure, to the documents and electronic files.

Only days before Mbeki’s intervention, Pikoli warned against ongoing “attacks” on the NPA by the ANC and its affiliates during his briefing to the National Assembly’s justice committee.

Pikoli warned: “Those who continue to attack the NPA should refrain from doing so immediately, unless they want to turn our hard-fought democracy into a lawless society.”

Yesterday, Frank Chikane, the director-general in the Presidency, briefed MPs, telling them that the breakdown in Pikoli’s relationship with Mabandla should not be reduced to a personal issue and that they were constitutionally bound to work together.

“It is in the exercise of that that something has gone wrong,” he said at the briefing at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

Chikane said Mbeki would decide who would head the inquiry into Pikoli’s “fitness to hold public office”. Once the inquiry had been completed, the president would apply his mind to the issue.

If he decided to remove Pikoli from office, Mbeki would have to inform parliament about the matter within 14 days of his decision.

However, parliamentary opposition parties were not convinced by Chikane’s explanation.

“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,” Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said.

Freedom Front Plus MP Willie Spies said it appeared that the Presidency was busy with damage control.

Pikoli had yet to publicly respond to his suspension and reports that he will be the subject of an Mbeki-authorised investigation, but – under the National Prosecuting Authority Act – he will, if he is fired, have 14 days in which to give his side of the story to parliament.

Meanwhile, Selebi’s spokesperson, Director Sally de Beer, yesterday declined to comment on a report in The Star that Mbeki planned to institute a probe into Selebi’s alleged links with crime syndicates, saying it would be “thoroughly inappropriate”.

n The government’s top security chiefs were summoned to an urgent meeting in Pretoria yesterday to discuss the “implications of the situation” following Pikoli’s suspension, reports our political staff.

The meeting of the National Security Council at the Union Buildings was attended by intelligence and defence force heavyweights like Barry Gilder from the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee; Manala Manzini, director-general in the National Intelligence Agency; Defence Secretary January Masilela; and Godfrey Ngwenya, chief of the SANDF.