/ 16 April 2010

Selebi: ‘I’ll never sell my soul for money’

Selebi: 'i'll Never Sell My Soul For Money'

Former police chief Jackie Selebi is expected to continue giving evidence in his corruption trial in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Friday.

On Thursday he denied accepting money or clothing from convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti, saying he would “never sell his soul for money”.

“I have never received money in order to act in a certain way … I have never asked for money from anyone and I’m not guilty of anything. Money has never been the centre of my life … I lived in exile without a salary.”

He denied asking Agliotti for money for medical assistance for one of his children, labelling his former friend a compulsive liar.

Selebi denied Agliotti’s claim he bought clothing from fashion label Fubu for him or his children, saying he would never be caught wearing “baggy clothing”.

“If I wanted clothing, I will go to a shop called Grays [a luxury clothing store in Sandton]. My children do not wear Fubu … I don’t wear Fubu. I will be regarded as a madman should I wear that. If I wore Fubu people will say this case has made Jackie to lose his mind.”

Agliotti was merely a police informant who tipped him off about white-collar crime, he said.

Selebi also denied throwing a R30 000 dinner in Paris to lobby Interpol delegates to vote for him to become Interpol president.

He lost his cool when his lawyer Jaap Cilliers took him through a National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) dossier which implied he had links to a syndicate involved in smuggling drugs, cigarettes, cigars, stolen car parts and human trafficking in 2006.

He said Paul O’Sullivan, the man who had taken him to court saying he was responsible for his sacking as airports security head, had a vendetta against him. Selebi said O’Sullivan had made his intentions clear and had made it known he would “have a trial of Selebi by the media”.

“Yes, he [O’Sullivan], participated [in putting together the dossier]. He took statements from witnesses.”

Plans to prosecute Mbeki
Selebi said the NPA had planned to prosecute former president Thabo Mbeki and a number of senior ANC politicians for crimes committed during the struggle.

Asked by Cilliers what caused the relationship between him and the Scorpions to deteriorate, Selebi gave a number of examples, including the alleged plan to prosecute Mbeki.

Selebi told the court he was told by police officers who attended a meeting with senior NPA prosecutor Anton Ackerman that the NPA needed police detectives to help Ackerman investigate crimes committed under apartheid by the ANC and the South African security forces.

Selebi refused to assist the NPA. “How am I expected to give police to Anton Ackerman to investigate me and possibly charge me for the fight against apartheid? That created a big problem in our relationship [with the Scorpions].”

In a subsequent discussion with former prosecutions boss Bulelani Ngcuka, Ngcuka allegedly told Selebi such prosecutions would not happen.