Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s lawyer rejected another attempt by the state to postpone his trial in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday.
In response to state prosecutor Gerrie Nel suggesting a postponement to October or November, Jaap Cilliers said Selebi wanted to get on with the job of defending himself.
Selebi wanted a chance to show ”that he has been degraded by the [National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)] for improper purposes”, Cilliers said.
In his application for a postponement, Nel said a crucial file had gone missing and after being stalled in their attempts to question police witnesses, the state also discovered that Selebi had been privy to recently declassified information that they were yet to see.
The acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe had received a letter from acting police commissioner Tim Williams complaining about inferences that the police were not cooperating with the NPA.
Nel said he repeated this belief that the police were not cooperating and that Selebi was somehow pulling strings behind the scenes.
”Either they are loyal to him or the accused is still in charge,” he said.
Nel said they discovered on Thursday before the public holiday that certain information had been declassified and although it was clear Selebi had seen it, he was yet to see it.
A frustrated Judge Meyer Joffe asked: ”Why is everyone running around in circles in this trial?”
Selebi faces two charges of corruption and one of defeating the ends of justice relating to payments he allegedly received from slain mining boss Brett Kebble and his associate Glenn Agliotti, who is accused of murdering Kebble.
Cilliers said if the matter had to be postponed, it should only be for a further three or four weeks.
Nel said, however, that he could not be ready in a month. — Sapa