JOHANNESBURG - President Thabo Mbeki has extended the contract of suspended national police commissioner Jackie Selebi by 12 months.
This is despite the various charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice that Selebi is currently facing. The national police commissioner, who is formally on extended leave, is due to appear in court tomorrow.
A statement issued by cabinet following a meeting on Wednesday June 25 said that Selebi's reappointment would take effect on July 1 2008. Cabinet said, "The National Commissioner will remain on leave pending the finalisation and outcome of his court case. Mr [Timothy] Williams will continue to act as the National Commissioner of SAPS. This decision was based on the need to allow due process to be concluded before a final decision could be taken on the future of his employment contract with the State."
In a statement in reaction [see here] Sandra Botha MP, the DA's parliamentary leader, condemned the decision, describing it as "yet another indication that Mbeki cannot act impartially in his dealings with Selebi." The Inkatha Freedom Party's Safety and Security spokesperson, Velaphi Ndlovu, commented: "We are totally shocked by this decision.
Selebi was placed on extended leave by President Mbeki on January 12 this year. This followed a failed attempt by Selebi, with the assistance of the National Intelligence Agency, to interdict the National Prosecuting Authority from instituting criminal charges against him. This failed, after Judge Nico Coetzee dismissed the application on January 11, ruling that the NPA had a compelling prima facie case against Selebi.
The following day President Mbeki announced that Selebi had requested and been given an extended leave of absence. Mbeki told reporters that Selebi himself "was of the view that this should happen so that whatever should happen in the courts about him, he ought not to be sitting at Police Headquarters because it would be easy to misinterpret that and this would likely to have a negative impact on the work of the NPA."
The NPA subsequently instituted various charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice against Selebi. These relate to what the NPA claims was a "longstanding general corrupt relationship" between him and the businessman Glenn Agliotti, during which Selebi is alleged to have accepted a sum of R1,2m in payments in return for various favours.
Selebi denies the charges.
Search and arrest warrants against Selebi had initially been issued to prosecutors in mid-September 2007. However, they were not carried out after the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, was suspended by Mbeki after he refused to have them withdrawn.
On September 18 2007 the Minister of Justice Brigitte Mabandla had given a letter to Pikoli ordering him not to pursue the arrest of Selebi. However, Pikoli wrote back pointing out that any instruction not to pursue the arrest and prosecution of Selebi "would be unlawful" and a breach of the Constitution and NPA Act.
Four days later Pikoli was brought before Mbeki where he was told to resign. After his refusal to do so he was suspended. According to Pikoli Mojanku Gumbi, Mbeki's legal advisor, requested Pikoli's replacement, Moketedi Mpshe, "apply for the cancellation of the warrants" which he proceeded to do.
Pikoli is currently contesting the legality of his suspension before the Ginwala commission of enquiry.
