In October 2014 Pikoli was appointed as the Western Cape's first police ombudsman by Premier Helen Zille, whose choice was unanimously backed by the provincial legislature's standing committee on community safety.
On 24 September 2007 President Thabo Mbeki suspended Pikoli in terms of Section 12(6)(a) of the National Prosecution Act 32 of 1998, citing an "irretrievable break down in the working relationship between the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and the NDPP.
[5][6] Journalists at the Mail & Guardian subsequently provided supporting evidence to the claim that Mbeki had suspended Pikoli as part of a bid to shield Police Commissioner Selebi.
"[8] Human Sciences Research Council political commentator Adam Habib said:[9] If the president suspended Mr Pikoli on the grounds that he had issued a warrant for the commissioner's arrest, then it suggests that an invasion is being made into an independent institution's operations.
The proceedings got off to a shaky start when the co-chairperson of the ad hoc parliamentary committee dealing with the matter, Oupa Monareng, was revealed to have been convicted of criminal charges in the mid-1990s.