ACDP objects to nomination of chairperson of Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee on Pikoli decision
ACDP MP and member of the joint ad hoc committee on the decision of the President to remove adv Pikoli from the office of NDPP, Steve Swart, this morning objected to the nomination of ANC MP Mr Monareng to chair the committee, due to his previous conviction on a charge of trying to bribe a police officer.
"The reason the ACDP joined other parties in opposing this nomination is that honesty and integrity will be key issues to consider when this committee deliberates on the future of Adv Pikoli. The NPA Act states that the national director must be a fit and proper person "with due regard to his or her experience, conscientiousness and integrity."
It is common cause that Mr Pikoli has the necessary experience. The other requirements of conscientiousness and integrity relate to aspects of character. To be a "fit and proper person" has been held by the courts to mean that he or she had to be a person of "integrity and reliability."
The Committee will have to deliberate as to whether Mr Pikoli suffers a flaw of character in the sense that he is lacking in the conscientiousness and integrity required for his office.
We understand that the chairperson of the ad hoc committee, Mr Monareng, was found guilty of trying to bribe a police officer after allegedly being found in possession of a stolen car and that he was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 3 years and R3000 fine. He would have had a run - in with the prosecuting authority over a lengthy period before his conviction and no doubt bears the scars of that encounter.
Clearly to now chair the committee on the very future of the head of the NPA presents a conflict of interest. We must avoid even a perception of bias when deliberating on the future of adv Pikoli.
Additionally, whilst Mr Monareng may be constitutionally entitled to be a member of parliament notwithstanding his chequered past, it is a totally different issue to chair a committee that has to deal with ethical issues of honesty and integrity.
The ACDP also called for the former Minister of Justice, Bridgett Mabandla, to be requested to appear before the committee to explain various issues raised during the Ginwala Commission, and more particularly the alleged breakdown of the working relationship between herself and adv Pikoli, her understanding of the relationship between the ministry and the NPA, and her instruction to adv Pikoli not to proceed with the warrants against national police commissioner Selebi. Her failure to give evidence at the Ginwala Enquiry resulting in adverse inferences being drawn by the enquiry must be addressed by this ad hoc committee.
Finally, the ACDP notes with concern that ANC lawyers intend reviewing the NPA Act following the SCA Zuma judgement this week. Parliament has created a network or provisions to reinforce and protect the constitutionally entrenched principle of prosecutorial independence. It has done so because the principle is an important one and because, as adv Pikoli's lawyers argued, "experience has taught that the executive is always likely to be tempted to interfere with the prosecutorial process for political reasons, more often than not to protect their cronies in high office".
The ACDP will oppose any attempts to tamper with the independence of the NPA for narrow political party purposes."
Statement issued by African Christian Democratic Party, MP, Steve Swart, January 14 2009
