According to several informants, the Scorpions recently put questions to police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi in connection with the broader investigation surrounding Glenn Agliotti, the alleged crime kingpin charged with Brett Kebble’s murder.
The broader investigation is a multinational probe into criminal syndicates and the alleged involvement of senior police officers.
Indirect sources told the Mail & Guardian that the Scorpions submitted written questions to Selebi. Information from the same sources suggests there has also been more than one face-to-face interview involving the police commissioner, Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy and the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli.
The sources described an earlier meeting concerning the Agliotti investigations and then a meeting last week as a follow-up to the written questions. Pressure is mounting on Selebi after Agliotti’s admission that he played a role in the fatal shooting of Kebble in a suburban Johannesburg street in September last year. At his bail hearing on Wednesday Agliotti submitted a statement in which he confirmed playing a role in what he termed Kebble’s ”assisted suicide”, which he alleged was planned with Kebble’s knowledge.
Selebi’s office would neither confirm nor deny that the Scorpions had questioned the commissioner. His spokesperson, Sally de Beer, told the M&G that Selebi ”suggested that you direct your enquiries to the alleged investigators”. The Scorpions’ Gauteng boss Gerrie Nel, who is leading the Agliotti investigation, also declined to comment.
One version of what happened at the meeting has it that Selebi became very heated and confronted McCarthy about investigators having scrutinised his bank accounts. The M&G had previously heard that Selebi’s private banking transactions had been scrutinised as part of the investigation.
City Press, which has been sympathetic to Selebi, has previously reported that the Scorpions were looking at an amount of about R16-million held offshore, but that there was no evidence linking Selebi to this.
In one of the meetings with Pikoli and McCarthy it is understood that Selebi also confirmed that Agliotti was an official police informer. The M&G understands that Scorpions investigators have been aware of this claim since very early in the probe.
Another account of the interaction said Selebi had complained generally about alleged leaks from the investigation, citing questions he received from the M&G as evidence that such leaks were deliberate.
It is said that Pikoli was generally defensive and apologetic in the meetings with Selebi, but rumours also circulated this week that the NPA boss was scheduled to brief President Thabo Mbeki on the situation regarding Selebi within days.
The NPA declined to comment on questions about a meeting, but Mbeki’s spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga, insisted that no such meeting was scheduled. ”I’ve got the president’s programme minute by minute until Christmas, and there is not such item in his diary,” Ratshitanga said. Pikoli is currently overseas.
Agliotti has offered his ”full co-operation” with the Kebble murder investigation. One source close to Agliotti told the M&G that he understood Scorpions investigators had asked that such cooperation include complete disclosure about Agliotti’s relationship with Selebi. This corroborates similar claims from another source and confirms that investigations are proceeding onwards and upwards.
It is not known if Agliotti has supplied information on Selebi. What is known is that the Scorpions are extremely concerned about Agliotti’s security and feel he would be safer under their protection rather than in detention at the Sandton police station, where he has been held up to now.
Additional reporting by Rapule Tabane