If President Thabo Mbeki dismissed Vusi Pikoli as a result of the report of the Ginwala inquiry, it would be one of the worst blows suffered by South Africa's young democracy.
This was the view of Wim Trengove SC, who said that the state's case against Pikoli, the suspended national director of public prosecutions, had been a sham, a travesty and a cover-up of unlawful behaviour by Brigitte Mabandla, the minister of justice.
Trengove is representing Pikoli at the Ginwala inquiry.
"I am not going to pretend that shoddy treatment of Pikoli means the end of democracy or anything as hyperbolic as that, but I do say it's very serious," said Trengove in an uncharacteristically passionate summing-up of the Pikoli defence before the inquiry on Friday.
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'It would be an unforgivable injustice to a good man' Firing Pikoli, who was suspended in September by the president, would create "a great injustice and incalculable damage", Trengove said.
"It would be an unforgivable injustice to a good man. He is one of our best. We are privileged to have public servants of the calibre of Mr Pikoli. He is highly principled - sometimes he might be pedantic and therefore rub people up the wrong way - but we badly need government officers like him," said Trengove.
Dismissing Pikoli, said Trengove, would be destructive for society because a national director of public prosecutions should not be punished for refusing to obey an executive order "not to arrest friends" - in this case, Jackie Selebi, the suspended national commissioner of police.
Trengove said that the "pressure on [Pikoli's] successors" would be unbearable - they would not know if they would go the way of Pikoli if they dared arrest a "friend of the executive arm of government", their integrity would always be questioned and the prosecutorial system of the country would be irretrievably corroded.
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