President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday dismissed calls for a commission of inquiry into allegations against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Mbeki wrote a letter to Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald in response to requests by that party last week for an inquiry to investigate allegations that Selebi was involved in criminal activities, presidency spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said on Thursday.
In his letter, Mbeki informed Groenewald that it would be ”entirely wrong and absurd to take the serious decision to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry, acting merely on the basis of rumour and speculation”.
Mbeki said that no state organ had informed him of any decision to investigate the national police commissioner. ”I am certain that if there was such an investigation, or such an investigation was contemplated, I would have been informed accordingly.”
Ratshitanga said the president ”expressed the greatest of confidence in National Commissioner Selebi”.
Mbeki said that he was certain that the commissioner would continue to work with the diligence, dedication and selflessness he had shown since his appointment.
Groenewald told Rapport newspaper last week that ”it cannot be tolerated that the chief of police continues with his work under a cloud of allegations that he is involved in crime”.
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.
‘Whitewash’
Meanwhile, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) on Thursday denied claims that it ”whitewashed” criminal allegations against Selebi said to have been made by O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan forwarded his complaint to the ICD for investigation and Selebi was cleared of any wrongdoing.
O’Sullivan told the Star newspaper earlier this week that he had tried to open a police case, but ”the police refused to investigate their own”.
The ICD said on Thursday that O’Sullivan’s claims were ”devoid of all truth”.
”Even more ludicrous is his claim that everything he gave the ICD was passed to Selebi,” ICD spokesperson Leslie Xinwa said in a statement. ”He hides behind declining to name important witnesses because there are none.”
He said the ICD would not put allegations to Selebi as the information O’Sullivan provided did not justify that.
”If anything, his claims strengthen our understanding that the fact that he has an axe to grind against Selebi has warped all fair and reasonable judgement on O’Sullivan’s part.”
Xinwa said protecting Selebi would be self-defeating for the ICD.
”Without proof from those who had evidence for the allegations, we could not prove anything against Selebi,” he said.