Jackie Selebi’s main accuser, Paul O’Sullivan, lashed out at the former police chief on Friday after the South Gauteng High Court convicted Selebi of corruption.
“Shame on you, Selebi! Shame on you!” an emotional O’Sullivan said at a press briefing in the same courtroom in which Selebi was convicted an hour earlier.
O’Sullivan is the country’s former head of airport security, who investigated Selebi for almost 10 years after linking him to his dismissal from the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa).
“The final score is South Africa 1, Selebi 0. Our country wins, Selebi loses,” O’Sullivan roared in court 4B, assisted by his lawyer.
O’Sullivan said the 150 000 South Africans murdered by “gangsters”, the 500 000 women raped and the two million people who were seriously injured by criminals while Selebi was chief of police must be breathing a sigh of relief.
“Selebi and the gangsters you have put into office, I despise you and will see that justice be done, which you so richly deserve.”
O’Sullivan also had a message for former president Thabo Mbeki, who supported Selebi as police commissioner and refused to suspend him against a growing tide of evidence.
“When you told the people of South Africa to trust you on Selebi, they did. You let the country down. You did this in a despicable manner. You suspended [former prosecutions boss Vusi] Pikoli in the face of damning evidence. Shame on you, Mbeki, shame on you.”
O’Sullivan said he was not finished with the police and had a long list of “senior corrupt cops” he is ready to expose, with the help of General Bheki Cele and the media.