Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Mokotedi Mpshe has taken steps to cancel both an arrest and search warrant for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
This was confirmed on Friday by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
The NPA said in a statement it would like ”to clarify the status of the arrest and search warrants”.
It said the Scorpions had obtained an arrest warrant for Selebi on September 10 from the chief magistrate in Randburg.
A search warrant was obtained on September 14 from the deputy judge president of the Witwatersrand Local Division of the High Court in Johannesburg.
”The decision to obtain these warrants was carefully considered and supported by the senior management of the NPA, including the [suspended] NDPP, Vusi Pikoli,” the statement said.
However, upon his appointment as acting NDPP, Mpshe decided to ”conduct a review of the matter”.
He briefed both the justice department director general and officials from the presidency about his initial assessment.
On September 28, Mpshe ”decided that it would be prudent to make an application for the cancellation of the arrest and search warrants, pending the outcome of his reconsideration of the decision”, the statement said.
Mpshe approached the Randburg Magistrates’ Court and the magistrate agreed to the cancellation of the arrest warrant.
He also approached the deputy judge president who indicated he was not prepared to retract the warrant.
”Pending the outcome of the review process, we won’t be taking action on this warrant,” said NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali.
The NPA emphasised it would continue with the investigation relating to Selebi and that it would announce a decision as soon as the review had been completed. – Sapa