The arrest of Glenn Agliotti on suspicion of murdering mining magnate Brett Kebble has opened perhaps the biggest can of worms in South Africa’s criminal history.
The arrest could have grave implications for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, who famously called Agliotti “my friend, finish and klaar” when the Mail & Guardian exposed their relationship six months ago.
Whether their friendship was innocent, as Selebi maintains, or more sinister, as the M&G‘s year-long investigation has suggested, Agliotti’s arrest must come as a huge embarrassment to the police chief and to the Cabinet, which publicly backed him last week.
The M&G printed details of the criminal network surrounding Kebble, and its links to Selebi, in May. We also revealed that Agliotti called Selebi shortly after Kebble’s murder on the night of September 27 last year.
On both their versions there was nothing sinister about the call. According to Agliotti’s lawyer, Agliotti contacted Selebi as he was approaching the murder scene to “request immediate investigation”. That Agliotti is now a suspect in the murder must lead to new questions about the purpose of his call.
Agliotti has been implicated in other serious crime, including drug and cigarette smuggling. Ties between this and an undercover freelance police operation have opened the possibility that Agliotti used Selebi as a cover for crime.
Palto
The freelance operation, parading as the VIP protection company Palto, worked with Agliotti as it performed “drug busts” and other operations that, affidavits in the M&G‘s possession allege, were in fact part of a criminal operation. Palto head Paul Stemmet at the time claimed to act on Selebi’s authority. The police chief has suggested that Stemmet was “name dropping”.
Agliotti was arrested by a Scorpions task team at about 6am on Thursday in the plush Johannesburg suburb of Bryanston, where he lives. Investigators did not want to indicate the circumstances of the arrest, but suggested that it did not take place at his home.
Agliotti, looking greyer than in an earlier photograph published by the M&G, appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court shortly after 2pm, charged with conspiracy to murder and murder. The provisional charge sheet said he had conspired with others between August last year and the date of Kebble’s murder.
A public gallery packed with members of the media was treated to a five-minute court appearance, which consisted of little more than a postponement to December 8, when Agliotti is to apply for bail. Afterwards, Gauteng Scorpions head Gerrie Nel, who acted as prosecutor, confirmed that further arrests were expected.
Agliotti’s arrest appears to be a direct result of the arrest of his associate Clint Nassif, three weeks ago. Nassif, like Agliotti, had consulted to Kebble at his JCI group on “security” and other projects.
Although the charge against Nassif was relatively minor — insurance fraud — the M&G predicted that this could “blow the [wider] case wide open”. It is believed that Nassif has turned state witness against Agliotti. Nel would not confirm this.
The M&G has detailed the wider Scorpions investigation dubbed Project Bad Guys, reaching from crimes involving narcotics trade, to police corruption (including a focus on Selebi himself), money laundering and the Kebble murder. Agliotti and Nassif were the common threads through all of this.
Aftermath
Nassif’s role in the aftermath of the killing was almost immediately controversial. He instructed that the car in which Kebble had been travelling when he was shot should be towed from the Wynberg police station to a panel-beater.
He asked first that it be cleaned — apparently to defeat forensic investigations — and then that it be released to an ex-policeman in his employ. He has denied issuing these instructions, but one of the panel-shop owners confirmed the details to the M&G a fortnight ago.
Agliotti’s behaviour before and immediately after the murder also invites questions. As we reported in May, Kebble spent time on the night before the murder in the vicinity of the scene of his death.
The night before he was killed, driving towards the same overpass where he would meet his death, Kebble spoke to John Stratton, a close associate at his JCI group of companies. Both Agliotti and Nassif were also close to Stratton.
Shortly after hanging up, Kebble phoned Agliotti. There was a flurry of calls between the two men as Kebble moved around in the vicinity of what would become the murder scene 24 hours later.
There have been widespread rumours that Kebble was killed because he had become a liability to the criminal network he had assembled around him as he ran out of funds to sustain his patronage networks.
There have also been allegations from a number of M&G sources who moved in the same circles as Nassif and Agliotti, that the two of them had been instrumental in laundering a large amount of money — up to R50-million — out of South Africa for Kebble.
“The story has it that Brett gave Glenn and Clint R50-million to convert to United States currency, basically to get the money undetected out of the country — this was going to be done by purchasing clean cut diamonds in South Africa,” said an anonymous source. Two more sources who moved in the same circles corroborated the story.
The allegation is that they would have stood to benefit from Kebble’s murder, which would have left them in control of the smuggled funds.
Rivalry
Although the Scorpions have made belated moves to include the police in their investigation, Agliotti’s arrest is likely to escalate the inter-agency rivalry — now near-open warfare — between the police and the Scorpions.
A source close to the commissioner’s office said it appeared that the Scorpions “wanted to pull the carpet from under the police” through the arrest of Agliotti. He referred to comments by Selebi last week that he expected a breakthrough in the case within two weeks.
A counter-interpretation was that Selebi had belatedly decided to prioritise arrests in the Kebble murder so as to get in first and control the process. Either way, the Scorpions got in first.
Selebi’s spokesperson, Sally de Beer, attended Agliotti’s court appearance on Thursday. Asked about implications for the commissioner, she said: “The arrest has happened; justice must take its course. Our office feels comfortable with the circumstances.”
She confirmed that the Scorpions had consulted police investigators in the hours before Agliotti’s arrest.
And in an attempt to patch up the relationship, the Scorpions announced, through spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi, that “SAPS has given their full cooperation and has dedicated two investigators to the DSO so that the two agencies [can] ensure a dedicated and focused approach to the ongoing murder investigation as well as prosecution.”
Kebble’s father, Roger, told the M&G after the arrest: “It’s a huge shock. I wouldn’t have expected it [the arrest] to come like that.”
Kebble senior had been in frequent contact with Agliotti in the aftermath of his son’s murder and the two were regarded as friends.
The DA on Thursday called for Selebi to step down. Last week, Cabinet had expressed “confidence” in Selebi. On Thursday, Deputy Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Johnny de Lange reportedly claimed the arrest showed Selebi in a good light.
You first read about it in the M&G
Over nearly six months, while it ran a series of articles about a crime syndicate associated with slain mining magnate Brett Kebble and police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, the Mail & Guardian was a voice crying in the media wilderness. The arrest of Glenn Agliotti vindicates the M&G‘s multipart exposÃ