New witness alleges Selebi was bribed

There are now officially two witnesses who allege they saw former police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi being bribed.

The state’s second witness in Selebi’s corruption trial, Dianne Muller, took the stand on Wednesday morning, telling the court that she saw Selebi being given money and clothing by her former fiancée, drug-lord Glenn Agliotti.

The trim, delicate looking blonde, with her maroon painted nails and perfectly tailored black suit, explained how she had personally packed R110 000 into a white bank bag, which she gave to Agliotti in the boardroom of her Midrand office. She then watched Agliotti slide the package across the table to Selebi, who was seated at the table.

‘[Agliotti] said: ‘Here you go, my china’ or ‘my bru’, but I’m convinced he said ‘my china’… Mr Selebi looked decidedly uncomfortable with me in the room and did not touch the bag. It sat on the glass table in front of him. I went back to my office. About half hour later, Mr Selebi left … I waved. Mr Selebi had the bank bag in his possession … I joked with Mr Agliotti that Mr Selebi had gotten R110 000 and I got a 10 000 tip.”

When chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked her if she had taken any steps regarding the payment, she replied: ‘I said to Mr Agliotti that I thought this was not really the way for things to happen; for the national commissioner to be paid off by Glenn Agliotti. Glenn told me to mind my own business … but how do you report something to the police when it is their boss I am reporting? I didn’t want to put myself or my daughter’s lives in danger.”

‘Lend, my ass’
Muller then relayed another incident, where she had been in Agliotti’s black Mercedes Benz, and overheard a telephone conversation between Agliotti and Selebi on Agliotti’s car phone. ‘Mr Selebi called and asked Glenn if he could lend him R10 000 for his son’s birthday party. Mr Agliotti said he could come to the offices the next morning, and he would give it to him … Glenn then said to me: ‘Lend, my ass, I’ll never see that money again’.

‘The following morning, I asked Glenn if he had remembered his friend. He said he had. Mr Selebi came to the office, they went to the boardroom and then he left.”

Muller then told the court about the clothing that Agliotti allegedly bought for Selebi. ‘Mr Agliotti is an overly generous person … One Saturday morning, I agreed to meet Mr Agliotti at Aigner in Sandton, to give him documents. I walked in, handed Mr Agliotti a document. Mr Selebi was trying on a suit they were fitting for him in the shop.”

Muller also claims to have been present when Agliotti allegedly splurged on Selebi’s sons at the Fubu clothing store in Sandton.

‘One weekend, Glenn, myself, Jackie Selebi, his wife and his two kids met outside Fubu,” she said. ‘Mr Agliotti took the two boys and let them buy shoes and clothes and jeans and whatever they wanted … Mr Agliotti told the little Indian salesgirl that he would sort the bill out in morning.”

‘There was another incident,” said Muller. ‘Mr Agliotti gave me an A4 envelope containing John Stratton’s [the late Brett Kebble’s business partner] citizenship that he said Mr Selebi was going to help him get. It was picked up by one of Mr Selebi’s drivers.”

When Nel asked Muller what she thought of the relationship between Selebi and Agliotti, she said: ‘I think it was a friendship with gain. I think they used each other for what they could gain from the friendship.”