POLITICS

ANC's removal of Pikoli a "farce and a joke" - IFP

Statement by Koos van der Merwe, MP, national assembly February 12 2009

REPORT OF THE AD HOC JOINT COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER MATTERS IN TERMS OF SECTION 12 OF THE NATIONAL PROSECUTING AUTHORITY ACT: SPEECH BY MR JH VAN DER MERWE MP, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, FEBRUARY 12 2009

Madame Speaker,

This Committee will be known as the most flawed Committee in the history of Parliament.

I have also called it a farce and a joke.

However, the best way to decribe this unfortunate Committee is to say it was an ANC instrument used as the executioner to politically hang Vusi Pikoli - come hell or high water.

THE FACTS

  • The facts are very simple.
    Firstly, the National Director of Public Prosecutions is suspended;
  • Then the Ginwala Commission is appointed to investigate the allegations
    against him;
  • Ginwala, a prominent ANC cadre, does a comprehenesive investigation.
  • She finds him a fit and proper person to occupy the positon form which he was suspended;
  • And recommends that he be reinstated;
  • Despite Ginwala's recommendations, Pikoli is shocklingly dismissed.

WHY WAS PIKOLI DISMISSED?

Now: The VITAL question: Why was Pikoli dismissed? The ANC gave a variety of reasons, continuously shifting the goal posts as it became clear that their initial reasons were rejected by Ginwala and are not valid.

In the end the ANC pathetically fell back on accusing Pikoli of being "insufficiently sensitive to matters of national security", which, of course, is nonsense.

Pikoli says the real reason for his dismissal was to stop him from arresting and prosecuting Police Commissioner Selebi.

All the available information supports Pikoli's reason for his dismissal. 

THE END RESULT

The end result is that the title of the Pikoli drama is written in huge black capital letters, namely:

I AM TO DIE BECAUSE I DARED TO PROSECUTE SELEBI

In finer letters one can imagine the words:

VUSI PIKOLI

  • You are dismissed because you dared to arrest an ANC high profile man, SELEBI
  • You are dismissed because you dared to act in accordance with your conscience and the Constitution
  • You are dismissed because you dared to disobey orders from Luthuli House

THE SILVER LINING

But, Madam Speaker, the silver lining around the black Pikoli cloud, is that the ANC executioner will not be able to hang him.

No, there will be a reprieve.

The matter will immediately go to the High Court -

  • Where the farce of the ANC will be exposed, and where
  •  The ANC's gross miscarriage of injustice will there be set aside and Vusi Pikoli will be reinstated.

Posterity will remember this unfortunate Committee as the biggest ANC Parliamentary blunder ever.

We oppose the dismissal of Pikoli and we propose that he be reinstated.

Statement issued by the Inkatha Freedom Party, February 12 2009

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