National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi visited the Johannesburg home of slain businessman and fraudster Brett Kebble several times last year, mostly for social occasions, three sources with direct personal experience of the visits have told the Mail & Guardian.
Their claims fly in the face of Selebi’s insistence last week that he “never visited” Kebble.
Selebi also told us that Glenn Agliotti, whom he had known since “1992 or 1994”, was simply his friend, and that he knew nothing about Agliotti’s business or personal dealings with Kebble and his associates.
Deputy National Commissioner Andre Pruis has since added that the friendship between the two men had no bearing on Selebi’s official duties.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has launched an aggressive spin campaign in the wake of the M&G‘s report last week that gave details of Selebi’s links to Agliotti and Clinton Nassif, a security company boss and spare parts dealer. Both men were closely involved in some of Kebble’s most secretive projects.
Both Agliotti and Selebi have denied that they ever went shopping together, but two sources, one of them sympathetic to Agliotti, have told us that Agliotti gave the commissioner gifts of clothing bought from stores in Sandton City or on overseas trips. One person who knows Agliotti and sought to defend his actions, said these gifts were simply gestures of affection from a generous man. He even gave Selebi’s driver a pair of running shoes, this person claimed.
Selebi’s claims last week that he did not remember where he had met Agliotti also ring hollow. Selebi has regularly visited the Midrand premises shared by Maxibit Africa and Maverick Masupatsela, according to informed sources.
A source who wanted to portray the relationship in the best possible light said the visits took place when Selebi was seeking refuge from the stresses of his job.
Selebi’s deputy commissioners, Hamilton Hlela, Mala Singh, Tim Williams and Pruis, last week issued a statement backing Selebi, and suggesting that our story was the product of a smear campaign. “The only question left unanswered is — who is the malicious influence behind the scenes?” Pruis asked.
He went on to tell journalists that those responsible could soon face arrest.
Media reports also suggested that our revelations were timed for maximum impact in the ongoing battle over the future of the Scorpions, and the broader struggle within the ANC.
Despite the M&G‘s insistence that a wide-ranging investigation into Selebi, Agliotti, Nassif and Kebble has been under way for several months, people on both sides of the ANC’s succession battle have said they believe the story was handed to us by sources on one or other side of the divide.
Two government officials said they thought the story was motivated by anger among people sympathetic to Jacob Zuma, because Selebi did not support sacked national intelligence chief Billy Masetlha in the confrontation over his illegal surveillance of Saki Macozoma, or the hoax e-mails that purported to portray a plot against Zuma.
But people close to Zuma said they thought the story was designed to weaken Selebi’s case as he campaigned for the absorption of the Scorpions into the police. President Thabo Mbeki is currently studying the Khampepe commission report on the future of the Scorpions, and is expected to announce his decision within weeks.
Selebi was out of the country this week on Interpol business, and did not respond to questions.
The M&G exposé relied on numerous sources straddling the political divide and outside the political arena.