Parliament should think twice before rubberstamping the decision to fire chief prosecutor Vusi Pikoli because all indications are that he could successfully challenge it in court, opposition parties warned on Tuesday.

The African Christian Democratic Party said if he did so, Pikoli would expose the political reasons that prompted President Kgalema Motlanthe to fire him and the bias of the ANC-dominated ad hoc committee reviewing his removal from office.

"It will clearly end up in court and all of us who have done the deliberating will end up in the dock," ACDP justice spokesman Steve Swart told the parliamentary committee.

"Let us bear that in mind."

Swart and other opposition MPs said they feared the panel was a farce since it was clear that the ANC had decided to oust Pikoli and had already picked his successor.

Press reports on Tuesday said the government was poised to name Durban advocate Muzi Wilfred Mkhize as the new head of the National Prosecuting Authority next month.

"In this morning's Cape Times I read that Advocate Pikoli's successor has already been appointed," Inkatha Freedom Party chief whip Koos van der Merwe said.

"That corroborates my view. We are playing along like fools because the decision has been taken."

The ANC caucus denied that this was the case, commending the "robust" debate in the committee and calling the opposition's view "unfortunate and misleading."

"We reject any insinuation that the ANC can flout legislation and circumvent the constitutional role of Parliament at will," it said in a statement.

The committee must advise MPs on whether or not to endorse
Motlanthe's decision to ignore the recommendations of the Ginwala Inquiry, which found that Pikoli was fit to hold office, and sack him for showing scant regard for national security.

It was due to deliberate the case for the rest of the week, but co-chair Oupa Monareng said it would reconvene only on February 10, when members will be presented with a draft report of its findings to debate.

Pikoli insists he was sidelined by former president Thabo Mbeki for moving to arrest national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, and has been fighting to hold onto his post.

The director general in the presidency, Frank Chikane, last week told the committee Mbeki suspended Pikoli in September 2007 to prevent an almost certain revolt if he were to arrest Selebi for corruption.

Chikane said Mbeki had top-secret information that the country could be destabilised, but Pikoli recklessly defied a request to wait two weeks to give the presidency time to put in place safeguards before arresting the police chief.

Pikoli agreed to wait one week only and said Mbeki did not quibble, but then suspended him days later.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille said Pikoli was punished for his response to a hypothetical question put to him before the Ginwala inquiry.

He told former speaker Frene Ginwala last year that if Mbeki had insisted on a delay of two weeks, he may have defied the president.

"Pikoli did not breach national security. He gave a hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question," she said.

"Let him finish his 10-year term and everybody will live happily ever after."

Even ANC members of the committee on Tuesday rejected Chikane's dramatic version of events.

"I'm not compelled by the view that somehow the country was going to collapse if Pikoli acted. But I do think a more nuanced view of national security was necessary," justice committee chairman Yunus Carrim said.

Carrim said the committee should not only debate Pikoli's fate but also determine to what extent the head of the NPA had to answer to the executive.

Both the Constitution and the NPA act was unclear on this point, he said.

The committee must report to the National Assembly by February 13.