Pikoli 'was creating crisis'

2008-05-08 15:14

Johannesburg - Suspended prosecuting head Vusi Pikoli's handling of the criminal probe against police chief Jackie Selebi was creating a "state crisis", the president's right-hand man, Frank Chikane, said on Thursday.

"He (Pikoli) chose a route which would create a crisis in terms of state functions," Chikane, the director general in the presidency, told the Ginwala Commission hearing into Pikoli's fitness to hold office.

Chikane said the Scorpions had ignored a process put in place by President Thabo Mbeki when they decided to obtain search warrants for intelligence documents related to Glenn Agliotti, a close friend of Selebi.

Pikoli's lawyer Tim Bruinders earlier told commission that the police deliberately blocked a Scorpions request for the documents.

Bruinders said his client had written a memorandum to Mbeki, indicating that he intended obtaining a search warrant for the files and acknowledging that it was a "drastic" step.

But Chikane said Pikoli had shown a "lack of understanding of the implications of doing it the way he did.

'Drastic' action

"If you're running a state, you need to run it in a way that does not create a crisis that could create a problem."

Bruinders told Chikane that the police had from day one "never intended" handing over copies of the documents.

Three meetings with the president, meetings with the ministers of justice and defence and two memoranda to Mbeki and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla did not yield any results, prompting Pikoli to take "drastic" action.

Bruinders put it to Chikane that the president could have acted in three ways on learning that warrants had been obtained - give Pikoli the go-ahead to execute them, ask him to hold back on the execution until the facilitation process had been completed, or suspend him.

Chikane however maintained there were only two options - either let him do it or suspend him.

Chikane told the commission that the subsequent charging of Selebi and his request for leave of absence showed that "if you handle it properly, you can achieve your objective".

He added that a raid of the intelligence headquarters by the Scorpions could have had grave consequences.

Asked whether he was seriously suggesting that someone could have died in a quest for documents at police headquarters, Chikane replied: "There's a risk."

Bowing to pressure

Bruinders told the commission that the Scorpions had requested intelligence reports related to Agliotti and wanted the police's informants' file pertaining to Agliotti.

The Scorpions also wanted video footage of Agliotti and Paul Stemmet, a businessman and police reservist to whom Selebi authorised a questionable R500 000 payment.

Mbeki bowed to increasing pressure in January to suspend Selebi on "extended leave of absence". Selebi was charged with corruption and defeating the ends of justice at the end of January.

Pikoli's lawyers are arguing that the criminal investigation into Selebi was the sole reason for his suspension.

- SAPA