National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi believes a smear campaign is being waged against him to remove him from his post.
”I don’t do crime; I am not corrupt,” Selebi reacted to a front-page report in the Sunday Times and articles in the Rapport implicating him, his Deputy Commissioner Andre Pruis and other senior police officers in criminal activity.
”All of these stories that I have read have got no bearing on the truth. All kinds of falsehoods and what people call leakages are made [against] my name,” Selebi told reporters at a press conference in Pretoria on Sunday.
He will go to court to stop the campaign if it continues, he said.
The Sunday Times reported that a 144-page document, containing affidavits by witnesses and informers, was part of a criminal investigation by the Scorpions.
”It paints a chilling picture of how the syndicate — which is involved in the smuggling of drugs, cigarettes and cigars, human trafficking and the trafficking of stolen car parts, liquor and cellphones, has spread its tentacles into the South African Police Service,” the newspaper reported.
Rapport wrote that Selebi is being investigated because of his involvement with certain people believed to have criminal links.
Selebi named the Airports Company South Africa’s former security group executive Paul O’Sullivan as the man behind the allegations.
O’Sullivan has some kind of vendetta against him and wants him removed from his post, Selebi charged. ”No person who works for a foreign intelligence service would come to South Africa and say I must go.”
It is not the first time O’Sullivan has claimed to have evidence implicating him in criminal activity, Selebi continued.
”His allegations were investigated by the Independent Complaints Directorate [ICD]. He had to produce witnesses of the allegation he was making in this dossier; he failed to produce this; the ICD said there was no way we could proceed,” Selebi said.
On allegations that the Scorpions are investigating him, Selebi said he will assist them, even by opening up his bank records if they ask. He has not asked the Scorpions whether he is under investigation, but will not object if he is.
”I have never asked a single one of that unit if they are investigating me; they are free to investigate anybody, including me, and I’m sure no one will find me having done any criminality,” he said.
Pruis said he had challenged O’Sullivan to debate his allegations publicly, but O’Sullivan had refused.
”It is strange to me that there’s … a concerted effort to destabilise the law-enforcement agencies of the state … There is only one that can benefit and that is the criminal element,” Pruis said.
Selebi denied reports that he had received R50 000 to be ”in the pocket” of Clint Nassif, owner of a security company employed by late mining magnate Brett Kebble.
While he admitted to knowing Glen Agliotti, a suspected underworld figure, Selebi was not aware of his involvement in any crimes. ”I don’t know of any criminal investigations of him. If there are, they can go on,” he said.
”The worry is not about me, because I know these things are not true. The worry is about the constables who look at me tomorrow morning …” — Sapa