Jackie Selebi

Jacob "Jackie" Sello Selebi (7 March 195023 January 2015) was the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service from January 2000 to January 2008, when he was put on extended leave and charged with corruption. He was also a former president of African National Congress Youth League, South African ambassador to the United Nations from 1995 to 1998, and President of Interpol from 2004 to 2008. However, he was released on medical parole in July 2012, after serving less than a year of his sentence, He is among the most senior members of the ANC to be subject to criminal corruption charges. His investigation and trial, which together lasted over five years, received significant public attention, and were highly politically sensitive. On some views, the trial contributed to the politicisation of the South African criminal justice system, particularly by contributing to the marginalisation and ultimately the disbanding of the Scorpions, the elite unit of the National Prosecuting Agency which had pursued Selebi.

Biography Selebi was born on 7 March 1950 in Soweto, a township in the south of Johannesburg. He had a bachelor's degree from the University of the North, and in the 1980s taught history at several schools. he was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee and as head of the ANC Youth League. He also chaired the 54th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1998, led the preparatory committees for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation, and belonged to the board of trustees at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. In 2000, newly elected President Thabo Mbeki appointed him National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS). In 2002, while SAPS Commissioner, Selebi was named a vice president of Interpol.

Conviction, parole, and death In January 2008, Selebi resigned from Interpol in order to deal with the corruption allegations against him. He was also put on "extended leave" by Mbeki, reportedly at his own request – effectively, he was suspended, and Tim Williams was appointed acting National Commissioner. He was convicted of corruption in July 2010 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. In December 2011, he reportedly collapsed in his home after learning that his final appeal had been rejected, and was hospitalised. When he began serving his prison sentence later that month, he was moved immediately to the hospital ward. After serving fewer than 250 days of his sentence, he was granted medical parole in July 2012, on the grounds that he had end-stage renal failure. He was released to his home in Waterkloof, Gauteng, where he remained under supervision,

He was married – his wife, Anne Selebi, was a nurse – and had two children. He said that crime had decreased since the Rugby World Cup was held in South Africa in 1995, and that there was "no reason for a frenzy about 2010." Some opposition parties and civil society groups expressed dismay.

Corruption charges

Investigation and arrest By late 2006, Selebi was known to be under investigation by the Scorpions for corruption. Thabo Mbeki, who was president at the time, has since said that the Scorpions' investigation into Selebi grew out of investigations into the 2005 murder of mining magnate and ANC donor Brett Kebble. Agliotti called Selebi from the scene of the Kebble's murder, Selebi infamously said of Agliotti, the day after Agliotti's arrest for murder, "He is my friend, finish and klaar ['and that's that']."

In September 2007, arrest and search warrants were issued against Selebi, and then withdrawn. Shortly afterwards, Mbeki suspended the director of public prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli. Selebi was known as a close ally of Mbeki, and Mbeki had defended him in the media. Some accused of Mbeki of protecting Selebi from dismissal and prosecution, a charge which he denied strenuously in a 2016 newsletter. The charges against Nel were quickly dropped. Speaking at the Mokgoro Commission in 2019, Willie Hofmeyr of the National Prosecuting Agency (NPA) alleged that Nel's arrest had been calculated to delay Selebi's prosecution, and was part of a broader conspiracy to protect Selebi. In the same week, the NPA announced that they intended to charge Selebi with corruption, fraud, money laundering, and racketeering. Selebi approached the Pretoria High Court, asking the court to block the state from laying charges against him for corruption. On 31 January 2008, he made his first appearance in the Randburg Regional Court, where he was charged with three counts of corruption and one count of defeating the ends of justice.

Trial After several delays, the trial began on 5 October 2009, with Nel acting as chief prosecutor. In exchange, Selebi had allegedly provided information about police investigations and preferential police treatment. He said in court that the trial involved "malicious prosecution and an attempt to discredit me."

Conviction and sentencing

On 2 July 2010, Selebi was found guilty of corruption. Judge Meyer Joffe of the Johannesburg High Court said that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Selebi had accepted money in exchange for favours. Selebi was found not guilty of the further charge of defeating the ends of justice. Prosecutor Billy Downer has described Pikoli's removal as "an all-time low on the rule-of-law barometer." The Scorpions were disbanded in 2008, with at least some commentators linking the decision to the unit's investigations into and cases against Selebi and Jacob Zuma, another prominent ANC politician. Former deputy of the NPA Nomgcobo Jiba has also been subject to accusations, which she denies, that she was involved in attempts to obstruct the prosecution. In 2010, the South African Revenue Services laid a complaint against certain NPA officials in the prosecuting team, which the NPA referred to the Hawks for investigation. In July 2014, the NPA began an internal investigation into Selebi's prosecution, after Selebi's family and legal team filed a complaint of misconduct, alleging that the prosecution had not revealed all the evidence in its possession during the trial. Shaun Abrahams led the investigation.