Jackie Selebi’s battle to secure access to prosecution information ahead of his trial has thrown up dramatic new details of how the investigation into the police commissioner began.
Selebi this week approached the Johannesburg High Court to force the state to disclose more details about the case against him. Attached to his application were some new pieces of evidence already disclosed to him by the prosecution — including the letter that set the Selebi case in motion.
Marked ”Top Secret”, it is a letter from Johannesburg National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss Charin de Beer to the regional head of the Scorpions and is dated January 24 2006.
De Beer attached a document addressed to the NPA which makes the allegation of a close relationship between Glenn Agliotti, Jackie Selebi, Clint Nassif and Brett Kebble — and sketches out the operation of Nassif’s security company in particular detail.
Agliotti, now a state witness, is implicated in the death of Kebble and in allegedly making corrupt payments to Selebi.
At the time of his murder Kebble and his company, JCI, made extensive use of the security services of Nassif, who is also a state witness. The author of the information is not disclosed, but it is clear that he or she were taken seriously.
De Beer writes that cellphone records for those mentioned need to be obtained as a matter of urgency in order to assess the credibility of the allegations.
She notes that cellphone companies keep such records for five months and that this period would elapse within a week.
It was this letter and an incident where Selebi allegedly phoned Agliotti in the presence of police investigators who were probing Kebble’s murder that prompted the Scorpions to launch their own investigation.
Also attached to Selebi’s application is a previously unpublished affidavit by Stephen Sanders, a security consultant who worked for Nassif.
Sanders recounts how he was told by Nassif that Kebble and his JCI lieutenant, John Stratton, suspected that Agliotti had kept most of the R12-million they had provided to him to secure favours from Selebi.
Sanders says he was present on one occasion when Agliotti openly presented Selebi with a parcel of clothes and other items he had bought on an overseas trip, including a Mont Blanc wallet.
He also alleges that Kebble and Stratton spied on each other as well as on Brett’s brother Guy and his father Roger — as well as on other directors of JCI.
He also alleges that Stratton instructed him to ”take out” Mark Wellesley-Wood, the chief executive of JCI rival DRD Gold.
Selebi has told the court he believes the prosecution against him was initiated by an ulterior motive of the NPA He is demanding access to a wide swathe of the Scorpions’ evidence because, he argues, he needs it to show the ”Investigating and Prosecuting Authority did indeed manipulate evidence against me”.
Selebi claims that the investigation against him was part of an eleborate plot to secure the continued existence of the Scorpions.
Selebi repeats an earlier allegation that information was leaked by the Scorpions to the Mail & Guardian in order to discredit him.
In reply, lead Scorpions investigator Andrew Leask denies that the Scorpions or the NPA have held any meeting with the M&G in relation to the investigation ”other than meetings in an attempt to persuade the Mail & Guardian not to publish material relating to this investigation.
”The NPA is prosecuting the Applicant because it believes, on the basis of substantial evidence, that the Applicant is guilty of corruption and defeating the course of justice.”