Former National Director of Public Prosecutions‚ Vusi Pikoli‚ declined to respond to ex-South African president Thabo Mbeki’s assertion that he had shielded shamed police boss Jackie Selebi. “I hold former President Mbeki in high esteem. I will not respond publicly. My story is in my book‚ I stand by it‚” Pikoli said in a brief statement.Pikoli was booted by Mbeki when he tried to execute search warrants on Selebi‚ who was subsequently jailed for taking bribes from a drug trafficker‚ Glenn Agliotti.Mbeki‚ in a letter defending his actions when he was president‚ said Pikoli had not understood the sensitivities around the various arms of law enforcement‚ which were engaged in a bitter feud‚ and had refused to follow the protocols of liaising with the then director-general in the presidency‚ Frank Chikane.Pikoli had also wanted to serve the warrant within a week‚ and had refused to grant the presidency the two weeks grace they wanted‚ Mbeki said.His letter recounts a meeting between himself‚ Chikane and Pikoli in 2007: “We pointed out that any shooting war as would almost inevitably occur between the State organs the DSO (Directorate of Special Operations‚ better known as the Scorpions) and the SAPS would present the country with a very serious threat to its national security”.“I also tried to convince Adv Pikoli to understand that it was my absolute responsibility as President of the Republic to take all necessary measures to avoid this eventuality. I therefore proposed to NDPP Pikoli that he should carry out his search and seizure and arrest operations after two‚ rather than one week‚ as well as abandon his reliance on the use of unnecessary and provocative Warrants.“The two weeks would give me time to interact with National Commissioner Selebi and the SAPS leadership‚ as well as take other such steps as would ensure that the NDPP/DSO discharged their own tasks without plunging the country into a very serious national security crisis‚” Mbeki said. “The work I would do would ensure the full cooperation of the National Commissioner and the SAPS‚ with no need for any Warrants to be served on them.”Mbeki also criticised Pikoli for the plea bargains the State agreed to in the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble. "We argued‚ in vain‚ that the NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) should prosecute these in the same way as it intended to prosecute the National Commissioner. This matter of plea bargains and their timing was linked to Adv Pikoli’s insistence to act on his warrants in one week‚" he wrote..Pikoli’s book ‘My Second Initiation’ provides details of the events leading to the decision to charge Selebi‚ and recounts how to had to knock on currnet President Jacob Zuma’s office door in Luthuli House while he was the ANC’s deputy president‚ and inform him about the NPA’s plan to charge him for corruption.In 2013‚ he told the Daily Dispatch Dialogues that he “had to do what I had to do” which included disobeying unlawful instructions.Asked what he would have done if Mbeki had insisted he not go after Selebi‚ rather to go after Zuma only‚ he said: “Being a national director‚ my job is to deal with issues of crime fighting‚ irrespective of who is involved.”Pikoli also told the audience: “Some people have spoken of bravery in writing what I have written‚ of having done the things I have done. I always respond ‘if you call that bravery‚ then it means there exists fear’.”He also called on prosecutors to always stick to the call for national duty by defending the country’s Constitution and not be party loyalists...