Former US President Bill Clinton famously lied to the American people by saying: “I did not have sex with that women”. He then tried to wiggle out of a difficult question posed by a lawyer by saying: “Well, it depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is”. Former President Thabo Mbeki seems to have the [...]
Posts under ‘Vusi Pikoli’
NPA plagiarism scandal maybe hides a deeper truth
News that Mokotedi “Kokkie” Mpshe plagiarised a decision of a Hong Kong court that was later overturned on appeal when he tried to justify his decision to drop charges against Mr Jacob Zuma, is of course highly embarrasing. But does it have any legal significance? And what does this say about the NPA – which is [...]
National security? Then why is the President not stepping in?
There seems to be stand-off between the high brass of the police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Newspapers report that the police tapped the phones of the head of the Scorpions to try and ¨get¨ those who were investigating Police Commisioner, Jackie Selebi, then charged the çlead investigator in the Selebi matter, and now [...]
Parliament neither fit nor proper
The ANC majority of a joint ad hoc committee of Parliament has now taken a political decision to rubber-stamp the decision of President Kgalema Motlanthe to fire Vusi Pikoli, the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), on the basis that Pikoli was not suitably sensitive to national security concerns and was thus not a “fit [...]
Questions for Chikane, Mbandla, Gumbi, Simelane, Mpshe and Mbeki
Sometimes the truth seems so blindingly obvious that one is tempted to believe that even our politicians would not be able to twist the facts to justify the indefensible – only to be reminded that politicians lie for a living and that the ordinary voter is often too lazy or stupid to care.
But let us consider [...]
The NPA, the Minister and the headless chickens
I see the ANC in Parliament is suggesting that the NPA Act might have to be looked at to “clarify” the relationship between the executive (specifically the Minister of Justice) and the NPA, given the fact that the SCA differed from Judge Nicholson about the exact nature of this relationship (and Frene Ginwala’s quasi-judicial report again [...]
SCA provides common sense interpretation of section 179
It is always nice when one is proven to be correct. After the Nicholson judgement, some readers of this Blog issued rather cataclysmic condemations of myself and others and suggested that we were stupid and uninformed for having predicted that section 179 of the Constitution (read with the relevant sections of the NPA Act) did not [...]
SCA delivers a scathing critique of Nicholson
Today the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) delivered a scathing indictment of the Nicholson judgement in the case brought by Mr Jacob Zuma to challenge the decision of the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) to charge him with corruption without hearing representations from him first.
The SCA judgement 9 written by Harms J) makes clear that the [...]
Why Ginwala and Motlanthe are dead wrong
After re-reading Frene Ginwala’s report, it is quite clear to me that in her haste to protect the then Minister of Justice and the then President, she wrote a report riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions. The President then decided to fire Pikoli and in doing so, may have misconstrued his powers in terms of the [...]
National security, the last refuge of scoundrels?
At the heart of the Ginwala Commission of Enquiry Report and the decision by President Kgalema Motlanthe to recommend the removal from office of Vusi Pikoli, the National Director of Public Prosecutions, is a rather troubling interpretation of what is required to safeguard the constitutionally protected independence of the NPA.
The Report correctly points out that [...]
