Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

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

Senior prosecutors and NPA staff have reacted with disbelief and shock to a government 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 spokesman, Tladi Tladi, said: “The only statement that has been released was released by the GCIS (Government Communication and Information Service) . . . now the NPA would like the chance to make its own statement.”

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.

And not because he had “failed to control the Scorpions”, as was claimed in other 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 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 for the murder of businessman 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.”

But yesterday the Director-General in the Presidency, Frank Chikane, tried to downplay Pikoli’s suspension, saying “something had gone wrong” with Pikoli’s reporting to Mabandla, leading to an irretrievable breakdown in the working relationship.

It was this “professional relationship” breakdown that led to Pikoli’s suspension by Mbeki, he said.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko had earlier said the president considered the relationship between the minister and Pikoli central to the effective administration of justice and the “smooth functioning” of the NPA.

“The relationship breakdown had adverse implications for the NPA and the functioning of the criminal justice system,” he said.

But parliamentary opposition parties are not convinced by either Maseko’s statement or Chikane’s explanation to them at a briefing in Pretoria yesterday.

“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,” Parliamentary Democratic Alliance Leader Sandra Botha said.

Freedom Front Plus MP Willie Spies said it seemed the presidency was busy with damage control.

Pikoli has 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.

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

The meeting of the National Security Council at the Union Buildings came soon after the government called the opposition parties to a briefing to explain why Mbeki had suspended Pikoli.

Intelligence and defence force heavyweights like Barry Gilder, of 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, were just some of those at the meeting.

Chikane said: “We have got crime in this country; we need to deal with crime and we don’t want any dysfunctional ways in which people don’t operate according to the law.”

Meanwhile, Selebi’s spokeswoman, Sally de Beer, declined to comment on a report that Mbeki planned to institute a probe into Selebi’s alleged links with international crime groups, saying it would be “thoroughly inappropriate”.

Earlier this month, axed spy boss Billy Masetlha told the Hatfield Community Court that Mbeki and Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils had “conspired” against him, because he had differed with them over the submission he had made on behalf of the National Intelligence Agency to the Khampepe Commission about whom the Scorpions should report to.