The executive has full confidence in police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, despite recent media allegations again linking him to alleged criminals, Government Communications and Information System (GCIS) head Themba Maseko said on Thursday.
Briefing the media on Wednesday’s fortnightly Cabinet meeting, Maseko said: ”Government wishes to express its confidence in the commissioner, noting that the allegations were investigated by the Independent Complaints Directorate and found to be baseless.”
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula is dealing with the matter and has stated his willingness to consider any new information that could be brought forward in this regard.
”We call on all parties to resist the temptation of seeking cheap publicity at the expense of an innocent person.”
Maseko said the allegations against Selebi have been going on for quite some time.
When ”some evidence was put on the table” earlier, the ICD was called to investigate, which it did some time ago.
”Now the recent allegations have been brought forth, and what [Nqakula] has said is that if concrete evidence is brought forward relating to new information [and] is made available, he is more than willing to open a further investigation into the matter,” he said.
”The point needs to be made quite clearly that, as government, if allegations are made against any employee of the state, this will be investigated.
”This government has a track record of investigating people irrespective of their position or post in government.
”So, if there’s concrete evidence, it must be submitted, and the minister has made a public commitment to ensure a proper and thorough investigation is conducted,” Maseko said.
Selebi has said he 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 last weekend’s Sunday Times and articles in the Rapport newspaper 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. — Sapa