Categories

News – South Africa: Pikoli spurns R10m sweetener

WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.

Original Post Date: 2008-12-14 Time: 07:00:06  Posted By: Jan

President Kgalema Motlanthe was prepared to offer Vusi Pikoli about R10-million to walk away from his position as prosecuting head.

But Pikoli’s reluctance to resign as National Director of Public Prosecutions – and unrepentant response to the negative findings made against him by Dr Frene Ginwala – changed the president’s mind.

Weekend Argus has learnt that Motlanthe was initially willing to reinstate Pikoli, who was suspended from his job in September last year, on condition that he would receive an estimated R10m “golden handshake” and immediately resign.

Seemingly spurred on by the support he received from National Prosecuting Authority staff, however, Pikoli is understood to have been unwilling to accept the terms of the offer.

“He was seriously considering staying at the NPA, at least in the short term… in the hope that he would guide the NPA through the formation of the new unit that will replace the Scorpions,” a source said.

Unhappy about the prospect of Pikoli returning to office, Motlanthe was further infuriated by Pikoli’s refusal to accept Ginwala’s findings that he did not take into account national security implications when making prosecutorial decisions.

While finding that the state had failed to show that Pikoli was not “fit and proper” for his position, Ginwala criticised Pikoli’s evidence that he had refused then president Thabo Mbeki’s request for a two-week delay in the execution of arrest and search warrants against police boss Jackie Selebi.

Pikoli had instead offered to wait a week so that Mbeki could create an “enabling environment” for the impending arrest.

According to Ginwala, Pikoli’s attitude to Mbeki’s request – which was never explained by government’s lawyers – “evinces a lack of appreciation for the sensitivities that are attendant on matters that may impact on national security.

“It illustrates a lack of respect for the president’s constitutional obligation to maintain stability and national security, and it suggests that Advocate Pikoli believed his own assessment of the security environment superior to that of the president.”

In submissions requested by Motlanthe, Pikoli’s lawyers slammed Ginwala’s criticism as “overblown and exaggerated” and “wrong”.

“It would be a dereliction of (Pikoli’s) duties to act in such an obsequious manner as the enquiry suggests he should have done.

“He made it quite clear that he was acutely aware of the need for the president to create an enabling environment.

“He would have accommodated any reasonable request on that score.

“He was, however, entitled to assume that his counter-proposal of a week was sufficient because the president would have remonstrated or at least engaged him on it if it were not.”

Weekend Argus has been told that Motlanthe was initially “sympathetic” to Pikoli, but “was enraged by the attitude” expressed in his submissions.

Addressing the media earlier last week, Motlanthe hinted at his unhappiness over the prosecuting boss’s response to the Ginwala Inquiry report.

“In his representations, Advocate Pikoli embraced those findings that were in his favour and challenged those that were against him. 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 inquiry,” he said.

Pikoli’s attorney Aslam Moosajee said it was “disingenuous” to suggest that Motlanthe was leaning towards reinstating Pikoli but had changed his mind on the basis of Pikoli’s unrepentant response to the Ginwala report.

The fact that Motlanthe had asked for Pikoli’s representations about the “adverse findings” made against him in the Ginwala report “suggests that the president was never inclined to reinstate Mr Pikoli”, he said.

    • Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20081214080146755C356629