The Democratic Alliance is to ask President Thabo Mbeki questions in Parliament relating to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Vusi Pikoli’s suspension and the reported warrant of arrest issued for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
“The president must break his silence on Pikoli,” the party’s parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said in a statement on Sunday.
“I will tomorrow [Monday] send a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly asking her to urgently reconvene Parliament in order for the president to answer … why he suspended the director of the national prosecuting agency,” Botha said.
Mbeki suspended Pikoli on September 23, citing an irretrievable breakdown in his working relationship with Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Brigitte Mabandla.
“On a matter as grave as this, it is imperative that the president informs the nation.”
Botha said the law precluded the president and ministers from interfering with the prosecuting authority’s decisions on who they could and could not prosecute.
She said her questions included whether a warrant of arrest in fact existed for Selebi and whether Pikoli’s suspension was as a result of his pursuing a prima facie case against Selebi.
Not involved in criminal activity
Selebi, in an interview with Talk Radio 702, said there was a problem “when someone makes an allegation in order to investigate his own allegations”.
He told 702 and was quoted in the Star as saying: “I am certain that I, Jackie Selebi, have never been involved in that kind of wrongdoing. I have never been involved in any kind of criminal activity. If I was I would have resigned a long time ago,” he said.
Meanwhile, his spokesperson has denied telling the Sunday Times newspaper that he would never be arrested.
Director Sally de Beer said Selebi did not say “they will never arrest me” as this implied that he was above the law.
De Beer said Selebi only advised the publication that he was not aware of a warrant for his arrest.
According to the Sunday Times, Selebi said: “I will never be arrested … If there is a warrant for me I will stand on the 10th floor of the Sandton Towers so that the Scorpions can arrest me.”
This was in response to South African Broadcasting Corporation reports citing reliable sources that the NPA had obtained an arrest warrant for Selebi last week.
The Mail & Guardian has reported that Pikoli’s failure to give his political superiors full details of the investigation into Selebi — and possibly of Selebi’s planned arrest — led to his suspension, according to a range of official sources.
The M&G first revealed Selebi’s links to organised crime figures, and the Scorpions’ investigation into these links, in May last year.