Mbeki’s ‘new point-man’

President Thabo Mbeki’s suspension of National Prosecuting Authority chief Vusi Pikoli was intended to win back the allegiance of the country’s security cluster, which has opposed his perceived protection of the Scorpions, anti-Scorpions ­elements within the security establishment told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday.

Claims that the move was meant as support for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi were given substance by news late on Thursday that Pikoli prepared a warrant for the arrest of Selebi last week and that Mbeki was angered by being presented with a fait accompli.

A former intelligence officer said the president had to be seen to go to the ANC conference in Polokwane with the full backing of the armed forces, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the secret service and the police.

The M&G has conducted interviews with four high-ranking members of the security establishment: a former intelligence officer; a former member of the ANC underground; a senior South African Police Service (SAPS) intelligence officer attached to the VIP protection unit; and a national intelligence operative.

They all spoke on condition of anonymity and all broadly support the suspension of Pikoli.

The former intelligence officer said: ‘The president now appears to be relying on the police and the NIA to lead the fight against crime, as opposed to the Scorpions. This means that Selebi, not Pikoli, is his point-man.”

The former member of the ANC underground said Selebi was an integral part of Mbeki’s political charge in the run-up to the ANC’s conference. Allowing the Scorpions to move against Selebi would damage him.

‘The president cannot be seen to be clutching at straws. He has to appear focused and on top of the government agenda.

‘Feeding Selebi to the wolves would push him to the Zuma camp, just as General [Siphiwe] Nyanda and [former NIA chief Billy] Masetlha forged political ties outside the Mbeki circle. Selebi is the only cord that ties the police, the NIA and the secret service to the president.”

The ANC source noted that Selebi was highly respected and a senior figure.

‘In fact, he was the second-most senior ANC cadre, after Nyanda, to be deployed into the leadership of the country’s security forces.”

A senior intelligence operative with an ANC background echoed this, saying Selebi commanded great respect in the ANC, both as a police chief and a ‘tested ANC cadre”.

‘Selebi has a good relationship with the president. He is a part of a chain of exile backroom operators who are now ruling the country.”

The security establishment opposed Mbeki’s decision to form the Scorpions and pressed at the Khampepe Commission for its incorporation into the SAPS.

The senior SAPS intelligence officer said the decision to ditch Pikoli was taken earlier this month. ‘For at least three weeks, it has been expected that the president would release him. There is a general feeling in the security cluster that the Scorpions have enjoyed undue protection from the president, fuelling suspicion that it behaves like his personal army.”

The officer said the Scorpions were unaware that Selebi had taken Mbeki into his confidence. Mbeki accepted Selebi’s version that Agliotti was a police informer who ‘had to be handled directly by the commissioner because of the sensitivity of the police investigation into massive drug peddling, in which Agliotti was a mole”.

An NIA intelligence operative claimed Mbeki had confidence in Selebi and would make himself available to testify before any commission of inquiry into Selebi’s alleged links with the underworld.

‘The president would talk frankly about long-term investigations by the police, where Agliotti has been a vital source. This is one of a number of cases linked to the broad investigation, and Agliotti has previously supplied indisputable information.”

All the sources for this story are broadly supportive of Zuma and critical of the Scorpions.