There is nothing irregular or sinister about the use of seized vehicles by the police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, or the South African Police Service (SAPS) headquarters, police said on Wednesday.
”The vehicle in question is being legally used by various SAPS members at head office,” said Senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo in a statement.
Naidoo was responding to media reports that impounded vehicles were allegedly being used by police officials for work and private purposes.
Selebi was said to have been driving around in an impounded stolen Toyota Land Cruiser.
The vehicle was registered to the SAPS and not to any individual, said Naidoo.
He said: ”This is but one of thousands of vehicles that are known in the police as Regulation 80(6) vehicles.”
These vehicles were seized by the police under the Criminal Procedure Act, either because the identification of the vehicle had been tampered with or because the vehicles were used to commit crimes.
If a vehicle is seized under these circumstances, it may be forfeited it to the state after certain processes have been followed.
”Thereafter, as part of the disposal process, it may be used by the police to combat crime or the alternative would be to destroy it.”
Naidoo said in the past six financial years ”we have registered 3 359 such vehicles which are being used by the SAPS for the purposes of combating and investigating crime”.
”It is clear that those who initiated the speculation about the vehicle have been either misinformed or are just plain ignorant about the facts and procedures surrounding this and other such vehicles in the SAPS,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Democratic Alliance asked Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula to explain whether Selebi had been driving around in the vehicle.
”Reports that police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has been driving a Toyota Land Cruiser, one of a batch of stolen vehicles recovered and impounded by the police, raise questions that need to be answered,” DA safety and security spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard said in a statement.
Kohler-Barnard said she had submitted questions to Nqakula on the issue.
”Commissioner Selebi is the top crime-fighting official in the country, and yet there is a huge cloud of suspicion hanging over his integrity due to his inappropriate friendship with Brett Kebble murder suspect Glenn Agliotti, as well as a controversial dossier, full of accusations by former Airports Company South Africa security chief Paul O’Sullivan.
”These latest allegations that [he] is driving a stolen car can only serve to add to the questions that ordinary South Africans are asking about the suitability of Mr Selebi for the job of police national commissioner.
”The matter must consequently be cleared up as soon as possible so that the commissioner can continue with his job of fighting crime in South Africa,” she said. — Sapa