/ 23 January 2005

Scorpions have new sting in their tale

The Scorpions have a new sting in their tail with the appointment of advocate Vusumzi Patrick Pikoli as National Director of Public Prosecutions.

Pikoli, who replaces Bulelani Ngcuka from February 1, sees his appointment as a ”big challenge”.

”I suppose the biggest issue is building public confidence in the criminal justice system, to have prosecutions at the centre… ensuring effective prosecutions,” he said on Saturday.

The appointment, announced on Friday evening, was welcomed by the Democratic Alliance — ”most importantly because he is not a high profile ANC politician”, said the party’s justice spokeswoman Sheila Camerer.

She said that while Pikoli’s record at the justice department was patchy, he had nevertheless made laudable attempts to sort out its ”appalling finances” and roll back the ”endemic corruption” which had plagued it since 1994.

On the negative side he had egg on his face over the way he dealt with Mike Tshishonga, previous head of the Master’s Offices who blew the whistle on corruption, Camerer said.

Speaking to Sapa, Pikoli paid tribute to Ngcuka for the job he had done, and responded to past public criticism of the office by saying that ”one has got to make sure that there’s better cooperation amongst all law enforcement agencies to make sure we focus on the one thing that really matters, which is to fight crime.”

Ngcuka was cleared in February 2004 by the Hefer Commission of having been a spy for the apartheid government.

The allegation arose in a series of tit-for-tat media articles surrounding a botched Scorpions investigation of Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

But commission chairman, retired judge Joos Hefer, found that matters in Ngcuka’s office did ”not appear to be what they should be”.

Pikoli said other priorities lay in improving levels of skill within the department, particularly around cases involving money laundering and dealing ”in a much more effective and much more sensitive way with sexual offences”.

Pikoli would not be drawn out on the cases which his predecessor had left in his wake.

The Mark Thatcher case had ”come and gone” and Thatcher was still expected to cooperate with South African law enforcement agencies over the failed coup in Equatorial Guinea, Pikoli said.

Of the Travelgate scandal, Pikoli said he could not comment until he got to his desk.

Similarly, of the controversy surrounding Deputy President Jacob Zuma, and whether the matter would be taken up again, Pikoli said it was a matter he could only comment on once he got to the office.

Ngcuka had announced in 2003 that Zuma would not be prosecuted for corruption related to the country’s multi-billion rand arms acquisition deal, despite what he called prima facie evidence of wrongdoing.

Despite criticism of the National Prosecuting Authority, which Pikoli will now head, its various agencies have notched up several successes since its founding in 1998.

The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) had by February last year returned more than R100 million to victims of crime.

The AFU had also won 16 of the 20 judgments in which it was involved in the 2003/4 financial year and frozen assets in more than 170 new cases, with a value of R78 million.

In the 10 months up to February 2004, the Scorpions had achieved 214 convictions, giving them a 90 percent success rate.

Pikoli, commonly known as Vusi, was born on March 29, 1958 in Port Elizabeth.

After matriculating from St John’s College in Umtata (now Mthatha) in 1975, Pikoli studied law at the University of Fort Hare.

In his final year B.Proc. he was expelled due to his participation in the boycotting of lectures.

In 1984 he obtained a B.A. Law-degree from the National University of Lesotho.

In 1986 he completed the LLB-degree at the same university, whereafter he obtained the LLM-degree from the University of Zimbabwe in 1988.

Pikoli was admitted as an advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa in 1995.

In the meantime, he had joined the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions in 1980 and served as chairman of the ANC Youth in both Lesotho and Zimbabwe and was a member of the ANC’s Legal Department in Zambia.

He also represented the ANC in various regional and international conferences and seminars.

After his return to South Africa in the 1990s, Pikoli worked as legal adviser in the private sector prior to his appointment in 1994 as Special Adviser to then Minister of Justice, the late Dullah Omar.

He held this post until his appointment in June 1997 as deputy director-general for human resources within the Department of Justice.

Pikoli served as acting director from January 1999 until his appointment in November in that position. ‒ Sapa