ANC wants NPA Act reviewed

2009-01-13 15:43

Cape Town - The ANC's Parliamentary caucus has asked party lawyers to review the National Prosecuting Authority Act in the wake of the Supreme Court of Appeal's judgment in the Jacob Zuma case, the ruling party's Chief Whip said on Tuesday.

Mnyamezeli Booi said Monday's judgment, which reinstated fraud and corruption charges against presidential front-runner Zuma, raised questions about the powers of the NPA that had to be resolved.

"It is about the authority. Where does it rest?" he told reporters at a briefing called to name the ANC members of Parliament's ad hoc committee which would study President Kgalema Motlanthe's decision to fire NPA chief Vusi Pikoli.

"What has the judge seen that we have not seen? What is the problem with the Act? Or is it about how the NPA has conducted itself?" he asked.

Interpretation of the law

Booi said the Act governing the independent prosecutions authority might have to be amended because the latest two judgments in the Zuma case showed that senior judges disagreed in their interpretation of the law.

The Chief Whip denied suggestions that the ANC's interest in the matter sprang from the fact that its leader was involved in a protracted battle with the NPA that had cast a cloud over the party's election campaign and his presidential candidacy.

The SCA judgment on Monday vindicated the NPA's position that it was not obliged to invite representations from Zuma before charging him, overruling the controversial Pietermaritzburg High Court decision by Judge Chris Nicholson in September that let him off the hook.

"It is not about the president. It is our duty as legislators to look at how the NPA Act is interpreted," he insisted.

The ad hoc committee studying the Pikoli case will begin sitting on Wednesday and will have until February 9 to make a recommendation to the two houses of parliament on whether to approve his dismissal.

Oupa Monareng, whom the ANC has proposed as chair of the committee, said it would invite representations from Pikoli and would also ask Motlanthe if he wanted to elaborate on his reasons for firing him.

Jackie Selebi

Pikoli was suspended in September 2007 by former president Thabo Mbeki, who cited a breakdown in trust between the prosecutions chief and then justice minister Brigitte Mabandla.

But Pikoli alleges he was sidelined over the NPA's decision to push ahead with corruption charges against now-suspended national police chief Jackie Selebi.

The Ginwala commission of inquiry found last year that Pikoli was fit to hold office, but Motlanthe refused to reinstate him.

The president based his decision on a remark in Ginwala's report that Pikoli's handling of the Selebi case had shown insufficient regard for national security.

Pikoli took a decision to charge Zuma in 2005, two years after his predecessor Bulelani Ngcuka said there was a prima facie case of corruption against the senior politician but that he would not be prosecuted.

- SAPA