Vusi Pikoli had failed as head of the National Prosecuting Authority, the State said on Friday as it finished its closing arguments on his fitness to hold office.

Advocate Kgomotso Moroka told the Ginwala inquiry in Johannesburg that Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla had recommended and accepted his appointment as National Director of Public Prosecutions as he was not only properly qualified as a lawyer, but he had special qualities.

"You need to be able to lead an organisation. A lot of lawyers can't do that," he said.

He had to be able to apply common sense and wisdom.

She said he was properly qualified as an advocate to practice, although he might "need a little pupilage".

"But that is not why he was appointed. He has appointed to head and organisation and as head of that organisation Mr Pikoli has failed," she said.

She said it wasn't necessary for Mabandla to testify at the inquiry as most of the points raised were common cause.

Earlier, State advocate Seth Nthai said Pikoli had violated plea bargain policy by entering into agreements with Clinton Nassif and Glenn Agliotti, who had been convicted of drug offences.

Inquiry chairwoman Frene Ginwala would not let him elaborate too much on this as she believed they encroached on court terrain. Both were expected to be witnesses in the corruption trial of suspended national police commissioner Jackie Selebi.

Nthai said negotiating with people involved in organised crime was different to negotiating with someone "over the theft of a ball pen" and Pikoli should have considered this.

The amounts of the drugs involved were not mentioned in the plea bargains and no mitigating factors were presented, which Nthai said were flagrant breaches of policy.

He disagreed with Pikoli who had said he was not involved in finalising those agreements, as he had been suspended by then. He said it was on the inquiry's record that he knew about the agreements, even though they had not been signed yet.

Pikoli was suspended last September for a range of reasons, including the government's belief that he didn't inform Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla of his intention to execute search warrants at the premises of Selebi, and that he failed to take national security into account when striking plea bargains.

His lawyers were expected to wrap his side of the story on Friday afternoon.