South Africans need to put the country’s interests first, not the interests of political parties, said axed National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli on Wednesday.
”We as individuals need to be able to rise above party political interests when it comes to issues of the country,” he said during a debate on law and politics hosted by the University of Johannesburg.
Pikoli said that the way the Constitution was designed, executive powers rested with the head of state. The president was the one who took decisions and gave orders.
”… The issue is not where power resides, but how it is being exercised … that’s where the need for watchdogs comes in our society.”
He said MPs should be people of high integrity in society as they were law makers. ”But we have a situation where law makers become law breakers, for instance the Travelgate saga and some MPs facing criminal charges.
”MPs tend to want to protect party political interests against the public and Parliament’s interests.”
He said integrity was crucial in society and the country had to encourage a culture of obeying the law, where people would do the right thing, even when they were not being watched.
Pikoli said the country faced a situation where Parliament failed to exercise its right of being a watchdog. ”… Instead it has become a lapdog, not scrutinising laws passed by the executive.”
He said there was no threat posed against the judiciary for now, but he was concerned about the pronouncements made against it by senior cadres of the African National Congress.
”Judges are applauded when they rule in favour of the ruling party members. But they are trashed when they rule against them and called counter-revolutionaries.”
Meanwhile, President Kgalema Motlanthe has not yet made a decision on who should replace Pikoli, Motlanthe’s spokesperson said on Wednesday.
”There has been no decision yet,” Thabo Masebe said.
Pikoli’s lawyer, Aslam Moosajee, was waiting for the legal processes to be complied with after he served papers on Motlanthe challenging his client’s dismissal last week.
At the same time, he is poised to launch an interdict on behalf of Pikoli if the president goes ahead and appoints someone else.
He also served papers on the speaker of the National Assembly and the chair of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), who managed the votes in Parliament to confirm Motlanthe’s decision to fire Pikoli.
Pikoli wants the president’s decision to be reviewed, set aside and declared invalid.
He lost his job after Motlanthe said an inquiry into his fitness to hold office found that he did not appreciate national security issues.
Advocate Mokotedi Mpshe is acting as prosecutions head for the division, which currently includes investigations against ANC president Jacob Zuma and suspended police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi in its caseload.
Pikoli maintains that he was suspended by former president Thabo Mbeki in September 2007 in a bid to stop the prosecution of Selebi for corruption. — Sapa