National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi has denied links to alleged illegal activities including drug smuggling, according to the Sunday Independent.
This comes after reports linking him to Glenn Agliotti, the subject of a drugs probe by the Scorpions as part of its investigation into mining magnate Brett Kebble.
Agliotti, who served as a “consultant” to JCI — the main company in the Kebble stable — was a friend of Selebi. He was on the scene following the Kebble slaying on the night of September 27 last year and put a late-night call through to Selebi about the murder. Selebi and Agliotti have both said the call was an appeal from Agliotti for urgent police attention.
Selebi has described Agliotti as his “friend, finish and klaar”, but on Thursday sought to downplay their relationship in a briefing to the M&G, attended by his deputy, Andre Pruis, and other senior officers.
At the briefing, Deputy Commissioner Pruis said Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy had personally assured him that the drug bust had nothing to do with Agliotti and Agliotti’s relationship with Selebi.
Selebi was at pains to stress that allegations smearing him were spread by people trying to “confuse the picture” because police were investigating them.
And he said: “I still insist that if the Scorpions come here with an investigation against me, I am not concerned. I know these hands are not dirty … This is happening because people are trying to avoid the inevitable; in a couple of weeks it will play out; it will be clear. I think it has to do with those who have been fed by that hand.”
It was not clear whether Selebi was referring to those who had “been fed” by Kebble.
Separately, an adviser to Selebi has suggested that the so-called smear was also driven by political forces ahead of the African National Congress’s 2007 leadership conference, but he did not specify who the commissioner’s political enemies might be.
Selebi said his relationship with Agliotti had been blown out of proportion and there was no evidence that his friend was a criminal.
Although, at this stage, no evidence has been presented implicating Agliotti in the drug haul, he is well-acquainted with Stefanos “Steven” Paparas, one of those arrested in relation to the bust. Paparas was the sixth suspect to be taken into custody, on Wednesday this week, after an initial five, including his 69-year-old father, Dimitrios, had been arrested exactly a week earlier.
The six accused appeared in the Alberton Magistrate’s Court on Thursday morning for a bail hearing. Apart from the Paparases, both from Johannesburg, the accused are Lesley Allan Curtis, a Canadian, and Christiaan Alblas, Pedro Marques and Stanley Poonin, all from Johannesburg.
Agliotti is said to be friendly with Steven Paparas and the M&G is aware that it was an examination of Agliotti’s activities and acquaintances that led the Scorpions to look at Paparas. An undercover operation to monitor Paparas, in turn led to last week’s hashish and dagga seizures at a self-storage facility in Alberton and a plot near Springs.
Paparas co-owns the plot. According to the Scorpions, “a well-equipped factory for the packaging and the concealment of drugs”, was discovered in addition to the drugs.
At Thursday’s bail hearing, there was a heavy Scorpions presence and the state was represented by Scorpions provincial head Advocate Gerrie Nel. It is a matter of record that it is Nel who is leading the broader Kebble investigation. Asked after the bail hearing whether further arrests were expected, he said: “There are other bigger role players who we are looking at further.”
At the bail hearing, one Anthony Dormehl was identified as a state witness. The M&G has independently ascertained that Dormehl was linked to Agliotti in an earlier case involving smuggled contraband.
Contraband tobacco
In January 2003, according to affidavits in the M&G’s possession, a truck belonging to Dormehl’s company was stopped by local police from Garsfontein outside Pretoria. Inside they found boxes of counterfeit cigarettes.
In a statement prepared at the time, Dormehl explained that he had been introduced to a member of the police Serious Economic Offences unit, Inspector Charles Bezuidenhout.
Dormehl said Bezuidenhout contacted him with instructions to pick up a load of 430 boxes of cigarettes that he was to store in his warehouse. Later he got instructions from Bezuidenhout to transport 200 of the boxes to Cape Town — and it was this delivery that was stopped by Garsfontein police.
At this point, it is alleged, one Paul Stemmet became involved — phoning Garsfontein police claiming Dormehl’s truck was doing a “controlled delivery” as part of an undercover police operation. Stemmet was a police reservist who conducted undercover work for the police and, at the time, had direct access to top police officers, including Selebi. He also worked for Kebble’s JCI.
Other information in the possession of the M&G suggests that Agliotti was aware of the cigarette operation and sent his own lawyers to sort out matters for Dormehl.
Bezuidenhout, who left the police shortly after this incident, at the time filed an affidavit claiming that this was indeed a bona fide undercover operation and that he had failed to complete the documentation due to the pressure of time.
Bezuidenhout also claimed that he had such experience in the investigation of smuggling that “Commissioner Selebi sends information through to me for me to follow up”. He claimed to have made use of Dormehl’s company for “controlled deliveries” as part of such undercover operations.
However, Bezuidenhout’s commanding officer, Director Jacobus Nortje, filed an affidavit in which he denied that Bezuidenhout was conducting any authorised undercover operation and stated that his unit had never made any official use of Dormehl. Nortje also stated that he had spoken to Selebi who had denied giving Bezuidenhout any direct orders to conduct operations.
At this week’s briefing, Selebi at first denied knowing who Bezuidenhout was — until his memory was refreshed by Pruis, who said that Bezuidenhout had ultimately recanted his affidavit. Selebi said people often claimed to have his authorisation or to work on his behalf, even when this was untrue. “If you say you’re instructed by the national commissioner, then you have more authority.”
Asked why Bezuidenhout, who on the face of it had tried to portray smuggling activity as a police operation, had not been prosecuted, Selebi and Pruis said that prosecuting authorities would have to account for that.
Meanwhile, the M&G has established that Steven Paparas has a historical link with another of the figures that became prominent in the last years of Kebble’s life, security company boss Clint Nassif, whose company provided JCI with investigation and protection services.
Paparas was a director of the Seabridge Group, a company that linked up with Nassif to market high-tech security equipment.
Both Nassif and Agliotti appear to have previously attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies in the course of broader investigations into contraband activities. But last week’s drug bust is the first concrete indication that Kebble’s desperation for cash to fuel his collapsing business empire and hide his massive frauds may have led him beyond the boundaries of white-collar crime — or at least into the orbit of organised criminal syndicates.
Ten months after his murder there have still been no arrests and police have maintained a stony silence on the progress and direction of the investigation.
Selebi threatens to sue M&G
However, Selebi has claimed he is the victim of a smear campaign.
Agliotti has threatened legal action against the M&G.
Selebi told the Sunday Independent he knew who had circulated documents to the media.
“If I was involved in any of this nonsense I would have been worried. I am totally not worried.”
The M&G would defend any lawsuit against it, said editor Ferial Hafajee, who denied Selebi’s contention that the newspaper had a plot against him.
He was trying to divert attention from “the very strange company he keeps,” she said.
The sensible haircut
Norbert Glenn Agliotti was born in Johannesburg in November 1956. His uncle, Joseph Agliotti, achieved notoriety in the late 1960s in one of the National Party regime’s biggest scandals: he bought land that was to become part of Johannesburg International airport (then Jan Smuts) at a reported R5-million, later selling it to the state for a reported R95-million.
By the mid-1980s, the young Agliotti displayed trappings of serious wealth, driving thoroughbred sports cars — and sometimes a Rolls Royce — and boasting of a yacht in the Mediterranean. Apart from working at a family printing business, Agliotti dabbled in import-export and trade financing. Some question whether the wealth was his own, or even existed.
Certainly, people who know him say he often had large amounts of hard cash on hand.
Agliotti’s greatest gift was people. Despite being overweight, sporting golf shirts and a “sensible” haircut, he had an “astonishing” ability to remember names and personal details. He was “charismatic, gentle and caring” and plied those around him with gifts.
Even then, he counted powerful friends in the business world, among them Caxton chief Terry Moolman.
But those who knew him then say Agliotti also had a troubling side, including the use of “gangster” language and his professed reverence for a Mafia don.
On October 10 1987, Agliotti “married” one Charlene in an elaborate and expensive wedding ceremony at the Hazyview resort of Casa do Sol. But there was already another Mrs Agliotti of some years’ standing, Vivien, who shared his home in Hyde Park, Johannesburg. Charlene went to live with him in a separate home in Kempton Park.
Former acquaintances say the charade lasted for almost a year, until both spouses discovered the truth about their husband’s frequent “business trips”.
In law, Agliotti was no bigamist, as the legal formalities of his marriage to Charlene were never completed. Agliotti, through his lawyer, this week denied that “any wedding as stated … took place”. The M&G has obtained a photograph of the occasion.
In 1997, working with Congolese nationals, Agliotti arranged for refined cobalt to be shipped to buyers in the United Kingdom and the US. John Hess, the American buyer, and an agent for British buyer Ken Higson inspected the cargo at a Rennies bonded warehouse in Johannesburg.
The Congolese, supposedly owners of the cobalt, claimed to be associated with the regime of Mobutu sese Seko. This was apparently used to explain unusual aspects of the transaction.
Hess told the M&G: “There were lots of delays, though I couldn’t quite understand the reason. There was some story about the Zairians watching to see this [cargo] didn’t get out … It all sounded somewhat fishy.”
The result was that “72 tons of cobalt” — which on inspection turned out to be sand — were delivered to Higson in Antwerp, and the same quantity of sand to Hess in the US.
Insurers Lloyds refused to pay, and fraud charges were pressed against Agliotti and three Congolese citizens. They stood trial in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court in 1998. One of Agliotti’s co-accused died and the others fled the country. Agliotti was acquitted.
Hess, however, pursued the matter through private arbitration, a binding civil procedure presided over by respected silk Arnold Subel.
Subel found for Hess in February 2000, ordering Agliotti and the freighting company he was associated with, Trans-Atlantic, to pay his losses. Although Hess had not yet paid for the cargo when he discovered its contents, he had made significant upfront payments for shipments and other fees.
Hess said this week he had still not been paid the outstanding amount — about R1-million — by Agliotti or Trans-Atlantic. He added: “I’ve no doubt Agliotti was the mastermind.”
Subel’s findings tend to support Hess. He accepted on a balance of probabilities that Agliotti had arranged for Hess’s consignment of sand to be loaded at a warehouse in Johannesburg.
Responding to questions, Agliotti’s lawyer this week pointed to the acquittal in the criminal case. She also claimed the arbitration proceedings were directed at Trans-Atlantic, “of which our client was neither a director nor a shareholder”.
The M&G has documentary proof that the arbitration was directed at both Trans-Atlantic and Agliotti. Subel’s findings and award were against both parties.
Selebi has confirmed knowing Agliotti since 1992 or 1994. One source said the two had met in the context of Agliotti’s visits to the African National Congress headquarters before 1994, where he had offered to pay for Selebi’s ill child to be hospitalised.