Convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti agreed on Tuesday to implicate himself in criminal activity during his evidence against South Africa’s former top cop and his friend, Jackie Selebi.
Agliotti was the first state witness to take the stand against Selebi, who is on trial on charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice in the South Gauteng High Court.
Judge Meyer Joffe adjourned proceedings just after 10am to allow for chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel to prepare a list of offences on which Agliotti will be asked to elaborate.
This, according to Nel, included corruption, fraud, money laundering, theft and defeating the ends of justice.
Nel earlier asked Joffe to warn Agliotti in terms of section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act that he may be granted indemnity for these crimes if he testifies truthfully about these events.
Selebi’s counsel, Jaap Cilliers, asked Joffe whether Nel was allowed to ask for ”blanket indemnity” on certain crimes without providing more details of these events. Nel agreed to provide more clarity on the indemnity charges when court resumed.
Dressed in a charcoal-coloured suit and yellow tie, a composed Agliotti started giving evidence after taking the judicial oath, raising his right hand and confidently saying, ”So help me God.”
Nel asked Agliotti to detail his interactions with the Scorpions since the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble in September 2005. Agliotti, who is accused of masterminding Kebble’s ”assisted suicide”, admitted playing a role in the mining boss’s death.
He then described the circumstances leading to his arrest for Kebble’s murder in November 2006.
Agliotti testified that his own legal team always assisted him in preparing affidavits for the Scorpions, except on one occasion when he submitted an affidavit that was used by Selebi in an unsuccessful January 2008 application to get the charges against him dropped.
Agliotti testified that this affidavit, in which he slams the Scorpions for their handling of the Selebi case, was drawn up by a ”mutual friend”. In a subsequent affidavit to the Scorpions, Agliotti revealed that former intelligence boss Manala Manzini and head of police intelligence Mulangi Mphego were involved in procuring this statement from him.
Agliotti also testified that four days after signing this affidavit, on January 4 2008 at the Balalaika hotel in Sandton, he met Mphego and deputy director general of the National Intelligence Agency Arthur Fraser at the Villa Via hotel in Sandton.
He didn’t elaborate on what was discussed at this meeting.
Improper business dealings
On Monday, Selebi, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, told the court that he was being prosecuted after discovering that axed prosecutions boss Vusi Pikoli and his predecessor, Bulelani Ngcuka, had improper business dealings with dodgy businessmen.
Selebi’s senior counsel, Jaap Cilliers, told Judge Meyer Joffe his client’s case was that he was being maliciously prosecuted because he supported the dissolution of the Scorpions and because of his ”discoveries” of alleged wrongdoing by Pikoli and Ngcuka.
In a plea explanation read out to court by Cilliers, Selebi accuses Pikoli of obtaining a ”material gratification through his wife from the late Brett Kebble/JCI Group in an improper way”. The ”gratification” consisted of shares in mining company Simmer & Jack.
Selebi also accuses Ngcuka of attempting to extort a bribe from former Hyundai boss Billy Rautenbach’s lawyer, James Ramsay. This, according to Selebi, was during a discussion with Ngcuka about a possible plea bargain for Rautenbach.
”The information was further that Ngcuka tried to extort a bribe from Ramsay and that he was more interested in information regarding mining rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe than in the offences that Rautenbach allegedly committed.”
Ngcuka rejected Selebi’s claims ”with contempt” and said the former police chief was trying to create a ”sideshow”.
According to Pikoli’s lawyer, Aslam Moosajee of Deneys Reitz attorneys, the Pikolis deny receiving any gratification from Kebble of the JCI Group.
”Ms [Nozuko] Pikoli does not own any shares and did not previously own any shares in Simmer & Jack Limited and Jaganda (Pty) Limited. Ms Pikoli owns 2% of the shares in Vulisango (Pty) Limited, in which she became a shareholder, after Mr [Lizo] Njenje (a close friend of hers) invited her to take up a shareholding in Vulisango (Pty) Limited. Ms Pikoli had no business dealings with Mr Kebble.”
Njenje was appointed the new head of the National Intelligence Agency on Friday.
Moosajee further states that Selebi did not previously raise any concerns about Ms Pikoli’s shareholding with Vusi Pikoli.
”Mr Selebi did not meet with Mr Pikoli in that regard. The directorate [of] crime intelligence has never approached Mr and Ms Pikoli in regard to the matter.
”It is clear that Mr Selebi’s latest allegations are an attempt to deflect attention away from the very serious charges he is facing and a ruse designed to create the impression that Mr Selebi is a victim,” the statement read.