CONVICTION OF SELEBI WELCOMED BY FF PLUS

The Freedom Front Plus welcomed the decision of Judge Meyer Joffe in the Gauteng South High Court today in which he found the former Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi, guilty of corruption. "Selebi is to date the person with the highest government position to be found guilty of corruption. The party had already in November 2006 requested former president Thabo Mbeki to appoint a judicial commission to investigate the allegations of Selebi's involvement with organized crime. The fact that Jackie Selebi has been found guilty today following his protracted hearing, proves that Mr. Mbeki was wrong in his decision not to appoint a commission but to rather fire Mr. Vusi Pikoli, the National Director of Prosecutions at the time, who had been investigating Selebi," Dr. Pieter Mulder, FF Plus leader and deputy minister of Agriculture said in reaction to the judgment.

"The whole Selebi case has seriously damaged South Africa , as well as the country's reputation abroad. If Mr. Mbeki had acted earlier, the state could have saved millions of rand and the case could already have been concluded. Taxpayers however had to foot the bill for the wrong decision of Mr. Mbeki. The state had to the end of March of this year already paid R14,5 million for the legal fees of Selebi. The legal fees of the 53 days of court proceedings have not yet been calculated and will certainly also amount to several millions of rand. This is an extremely high price to pay for what Judge Joffe described in his decision as Selebi's ‘low moral fibre' and his ‘unreliability'," Dr. Mulder added.

The decision of the court and the guilty finding of Selebi send a strong message to people in the service of government and the state who are involved in corruption that this sort of activity will not be tolerated by the legal system. The FF Plus will therefore also be requesting the government to recover the legal fees, from Selebi, which the state has paid thus far given his guilty finding today.

Statement issued by Dr Pieter Mulder, MP, Freedom Front Plus leader, July 2 2010

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