Finish and klaar for Selebi

Disgraced former top cop Jackie Selebi collapsed at his luxury Pretoria home yesterday - just after he watched the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismiss his appeal on television.

Then, it just got worse.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is set to get him to pay back at least R15 million - the amount it cost the State to defend him in court – and he’s got to report to prison to start his 15-year jail sentence by Monday.

Earlier yesterday, he emerged at the door of his Waterkloof house to welcome several visitors who arrived before the verdict. Casually dressed, he avoided coming out into the driveway within camera range of the assembled media pack on the road outside his house.

One visitor, who arrived in an Audi A4, attempted to intimidate journalists by first frantically taking photographs of them before making a video recording. He declined to comment when the assembled journalists asked who he was.

By 10am, the SCA had ruled that the disgraced former national police commissioner would have to go to jail to serve his 15-year sentence for corruption. It found that the Johannesburg High Court’s judgment last August was correct and that Selebi had been paid by convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti.

“On all the evidence contained in 66 volumes amounting to more than 600 pages that we had to wade through in his application for appeal, we are satisfied that the high court was correct in finding that the applicant did receive payment from Agliotti,” Judge Kenneth Mthiyane said.

Shortly afterwards, one of Selebi’s lawyers, Wynanda Coetzee, confirmed Selebi had collapsed inside his house after the verdict was handed down.

The driveway was cleared shortly afterwards and an ambulance arrived. It reversed right up to the front door, and Selebi was put into the ambulance along with an overnight bag. Family members followed shortly afterwards in a separate car. He was taken to the Jacaranda Hospital.

No one would comment on the record, but it appeared that Selebi’s collapse was a combination of stress and his diabetes.

Last night, Selebi’s nemesis, crime fighter Paul O’Sullivan, said he hoped Selebi would be forced into prison, in a wheelbarrow if necessary, within the 48-hour limit.

“I hope they put him on a drip and keep him alive for every day of those 15 years so that he can serve his entire sentence.

“He’s not going to deprive South Africans from seeing justice being done. That man has got to go to prison for the 150 000 people who were murdered in the nine years when he was police chief, for the 500 000 women who were raped and for the 2 million people who were robbed. And what was he doing during that time?

“He was having breakfast with the mafia; he was having his house refurbished with mafia money and going on overseas trips to places like Mauritius – on mafia money,” O’Sullivan said.

He said it was fitting that Selebi lost his appeal 10 years to the day he had O’Sullivan thrown out of the police reserves.

“Then he conspired with the CEO of Acsa to have me fired from my job protecting South Africans travelling through our airports.

“This has cost me my life, my family has been put into exile, my youngest daughter was born in exile because of that man and the crooked officers he surrounded himself with.

“This is the man who, as the head of Interpol, gave a keynote speech to the world’s police officers on the importance of having anti-corruption officers and then, six weeks after he returned to SA, had our anti-corruption unit shut down. And then he tried to get the Independent Complaints Directorate disbanded.

“This is the man who said ‘I will jump off Sandton City if I’m convicted of corruption’, who waved his hands at the media and said ‘do you think I am so cheap to be bought for R50 000?’.”

Yesterday Agliotti remained mum.

“I’ve just returned from Singapore,” he said. “I was told Mr Selebi had collapsed and I heard he had lost his appeal, but I don’t want to comment to the press.”

Last night, justice spokesman Tlali Tlali said the State would begin procedures to recoup the money it had spent on Selebi. “This is consistent with the agreement he entered into with the State.”

Coetzee said she expected Selebi would report to Correctional Services on Monday. “A warrant… needs to be issued and that document is not ready yet,” she said.

Selebi will have to report to the Registrar of the Johannesburg High Court first where he will be advised which Correctional Services facility to report to. - Pretoria News Weekend

• Lesson: graft doesn’t pay - Cosatu