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: 2009-01-21 Time: 20:00:08 Posted By: Jan
Vusi Pikoli was sacked as head of prosecutions because he had courted a national security crisis by moving too fast to arrest police chief Jackie Selebi, the government said on Wednesday.
The director-general in the presidency, Frank Chikane, told MPs former president Thabo Mbeki suspended Pikoli in 2007 because he had information that Selebi’s imminent arrest on corruption charges could destabilise the country.
Chikane did not elaborate on the information at Mbeki’s disposal.
“Our reaction to what was happening was one of total shock at the lack of sensitivity to national security,” he said in testimony to Parliament’s ad hoc committee reviewing Pikoli’s dismissal.
“Did Pikoli not understand security matters or risks?”
Pikoli, who was axed by President Kgalema Motlanthe as National Prosecuting Authority director last month, this week told the committee he believes he was sidelined by Mbeki to stop him arresting Selebi.
But Chikane and Justice Minister Enver Surty denied that Mbeki had meddled in the case to spare a political ally. Both portrayed Pikoli, who is fighting to win back his job, as irresponsible.
“It is wrong to say the president abused power. There was no abuse of power. I was there. The president did nothing to stop Pikoli from arresting Selebi,” Chikane said.
“What we did was not to stop the arrest but to avert a crisis.
“There was a great risk of something extraordinary happening to destabilise the country.”
Mbeki had asked Pikoli to wait two weeks before arresting Selebi on corruption and fraud charges, but the NPA director said he would wait only one.
He said Mbeki did not object at the time, but suspended him two days later.
The case, along with the ongoing trial of ANC president Jacob Zuma, has raised questions about political interference in the NPA.
Chikane said Pikoli had soured his relationship with Mbeki by obtaining arrest warrants while the then president was still waiting for a report from him on the Selebi case.
“Once you behave like that with a president you have closed the door to communication.
“The moment was tense. Mr Pikoli had decided to go his own way.”
Surty told the committee that, contrary to Pikoli’s claims, former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla had never sought to undermine the independence of the NPA.
A letter from Mabandla to Pikoli in September 2007 telling him not to “pursue the route that you have taken steps to pursue”, was not an order to stay the arrest, but was merely badly written, Surty said.
“It is unfortunate the way in which it was written because it does lend itself to the interpretation of interference.
“But if I read the Ginwala Inquiry right, neither the minister nor the president had acted in a manner intended to prevent the prosecution of Selebi.”
The inquiry, headed by former National Assembly speaker Frene Ginwala, last year found that Pikoli was fit to hold office and should be reinstated.
But President Kgalema Motlanthe refused, citing a comment by Ginwala that though this area was not part of her brief, she believed he had failed to show proper regard for national security.
It has become a moot point whether Pikoli could lose his job for a finding that strayed outside the inquiry’s terms of reference.
But Surty argued that Motlanthe was duty-bound to consider all aspects of Ginwala’s report.
“You could not expect the president to look at certain aspects of the findings and ignore others.”
The ANC-dominated ad hoc committee will decide next week whether to ask MPs to endorse or overrule Pikoli’s dismissal. His fate will then be decided by votes in the National Assembly on January 30 and the National Council of Provinces on February 3.
He has accused the committee of being “subjective”.
The charge was denied Wednesday by co-chairperson Oupa Monareng. Opposition members of the committee however said they felt it was clear its job was to ensure Pikoli was removed from office.
Democratic Alliance justice spokesman Tertius Delport said the ruling party repeatedly “moved the goal posts” in a bid to find a reason to get rid of Pikoli. – Sapa
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20090121172132585C704736