SOUTH AFRICA’S former police chief Jackie Selebi, on trial for corruption, took bribes and gifts from high-profile businessmen, including murdered mining magnate Brett Kebble, in return for favours, the prosecution’s main witness told a high court yesterday.
Convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti, who has received immunity from prosecution for turning state witness against his former friend, told a packed Johannesburg court how he channelled payments to Mr Selebi from those seeking to secure high-level police influence in return for a “consultation fee”.
According to Mr Agliotti, he channelled nearly $100,000 into the police chief’s bank account over the course of a year from Mr Kebble, a controversial figure who was gunned down by an assassin in 2005.
Mr Agliotti, whose relationship with Mr Selebi stretches back to 1990 when he first met him at a business meeting and agreed to pay his son’s medical bills, also charged Mr Kebble a $1 million fee for access to the former police commissioner.
In return for the bribe, Mr Agliotti set up a meeting with Mr Selebi and other top police officers on an undisclosed date to address concerns Mr Kebble had relating to investigations into a mining company and his father’s arrest at an airport, which he believed to be wrongful.
The purpose of the meeting was to “present the complaint and case to SAPS [the South African Police Service] and then obviously to have it further investigated,” Mr Agliotti told the court.
Mr Agliotti described how he and the police commissioner would “often meet, chat, shop together” and that he referred to his former friend as “chief” or “Jax”.
The court also heard that Mr Agliotti, who has been convicted as a drug dealer, also agreed to become a paid police informant.
One of his first successes, he said, was connected to passing on information regarding a shipment of 1.2 million tablets of the drug Mandrax in 2002, which had a street value of R80 million (€7.3 million).
Mr Selebi, who was head of Interpol until January last year, has pleaded not guilty to the charges of corruption, fraud and defeating the ends of justice brought against him by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
He has countered that he is being prosecuted for having damning information on former NPA bosses Bulelani Ngcuka and Vusi Pikoli, who he says were involved in attempts to extort bribes in return for making arrest warrants disappear.
Mr Ngcuka released a statement on Monday denying he was corrupt.
The case continues.