Pikoli book nothing but a deliberate whitewash

WHY would anyone want to publish a sterilised, one-sided version of Vusi Pikoli’s memoirs? That’s a question for Picador Africa, which recently unleashed My Second Initiation: The Memoir of Vusi Pikoli, by Vusi Pikoli and Mandy Wiener.

Pikoli, erstwhile director-general of justice and later head of the National Prosecuting Authority (which in his day housed the Scorpions), is best known for his rabid hunting down of Jackie Selebi, the one-time police commissioner who was later convicted.

Pikoli’s hagiography, which runs to 374 pages, can be described only as a whitewash. In this regard, one of the most serious issues is Pikoli’s protection of Enver Motala (real name: Enver Dawood), a so-called “liquidator”. The affairs of companies (and individuals) that go bust fall under the Master’s Office, part of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, which appoints private-sector liquidators to clean up and report back.

In October 2003, Mike Tshishonga blew the whistle on what he described as the “nepotistic” relationship between Motala and Penuell Maduna, then Minister of Justice. Motala had arrived from the platteland and rapidly rose to be No1 liquidator in the country. With no experience, he was appointed to gigantic failures such as RAG, which went under with assets of R1-billion. This guaranteed millions upon millions in fees for Motala, who employed a small army of lawyers.

Tshishonga went public, accusing Maduna of “exploitation and abuse of state apparatus and the infrastructure and staff of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. for the purposes of advancing his personal interests and agendas”. It would be an understatement to say that Maduna deployed Pikoli to do whatever it took to get rid of Tshishonga.

Without getting bogged down in the legalese, let’s just say that Tshishonga won every case that was thrown at him. He won in labour courts and he won his disciplinary hearing. Judge Pillay wrote that “whether the respondents (Maduna and Pikoli) account for their conduct as they should in a constitutional democracy is a consideration. They failed to do so by testifying in this trial and, in the case of the minister, also at the disciplinary inquiry.”

“Furthermore,” wrote the judge, “the respondents’ defence is funded from public coffers. They, and the minister in particular, owe the public an explanation. It is not as if they dismissed the allegations as ill-considered, unsubstantiated rantings of a disgruntled employee. They took the allegations against them seriously and were relentless in their pursuit of the applicant (Tshishonga). Their failure to offer any explanation in this case aggravates the claim against them.”

So convincing was Tshishonga’s case that the judge ordered that his legal costs be paid. The judge also ordered that Tshishonga be reinstated, subject to the outcome of his disciplinary hearing. After Tshishonga won that as well, Pikoli refused to comply with the court order.

It seemed mind-boggling that the director-general of justice was in contempt of court. Pikoli’s denial, in effect, of the grim realities around Motala has continued to this day. Neither Maduna nor Pikoli ever apologised to Tshishonga, as ordered by court.

While Maduna and Pikoli moved heaven and earth to protect Motala, the Serious Economic Offences Unit, part of the police force, arrested Motala on allegations of fraud and corruption in July 2004. In due course, the case disappeared – but that’s a story for another day.

Fast forward: in September 2011, the Master’s Office in Pretoria writes to Motala, telling him of his removal as a liquidator. Years before, Motala had been convicted on 93 counts – yes, nearly 100 – of fraud, and one of theft. He had lied about everything. This information was available to Pikoli and Maduna as czars of the justice department, and yet was either ignored or concealed.

None of this is mentioned in Pikoli’s book. Instead, Tshishonga is brushed with tar for having “undermined” Pikoli and for not coming out with “clear allegations of corruption”. As mentioned, Tshishonga was fully vindicated by the Labour Court.

However, perhaps the most disturbing issue is the possibility that Pikoli had ulterior reasons for hunting down Selebi, he who had dared to order Motala’s arrest.

This is only one of many crucial misrepresentations and material omissions in the Pikoli book. Tshishonga (who, by the way, published his own book) told me last week that Pikoli must “come clean”.

Barry Sergeant trained as an advocate, turned to journalism, and worked for eight years as an investment banker. He is the author of the bestselling Brett Kebble: The Inside Story and The Kebble Collusion. He has won several awards, including The Valley Trust Award for Courageous Journalism. His new book, The Assault on the Rand, published this year by Random House/Struik, tells the explosive story of the rand’s collapse.