Sunday Times. 20/1/2008 — 01/20/2008
CAN S.A. TRUST MBEKI ANY LONGER?
Mondli Makhanya
President betrayed trust over Selebi and Mafia boss Agliotti

President Thabo Mbeki has held the ultimate trust a nation can bestow since he was sworn in as our first citizen on June 16 1999 . As head of state and the government, he has been responsible for those aspects of our health, security and economic wellbeing that are beyond our personal control. He has invoked that mandate regularly in the execution of his responsibilities - insisting that Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was up to the job in the face of massive anecdotal and empirical evidence to the contrary; telling us that there were moves afoot, too secret for us to know, that would resolve the Zimbabwe crisis; reassuring us that our police force was in good hands. 'Trust me,' Mbeki told religious leaders who raised concerns with him over a year ago about the relationship between National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi and Mafia boss Glenn Agliotti, who had just been arrested in connection with Brett Kebble’s murder. He said he had no evidence suggesting Selebi had done anything wrong, and promised to act if anything came up.
 
Advocate Pikoli’s 'last resort' appeal to Mbeki
Now it has emerged that National Prosecuting Authority and Scorpions head Vusi Pikoli wrote a 'last resort' appeal to Mbeki in May last year, spelling out serious allegations against Selebi and asking for executive support to investigate the country's police chief, who was also president of Interpol. He specifically recorded his concern that Selebi was protecting Agliotti. We do not know whether Mbeki responded to that letter, but in September, when Pikoli obtained search and arrest warrants against Selebi, Mbeki intervened decisively to suspend Pikoli on grounds massively more tenuous than the evidence already stacked against the policeman. Days later - after a meeting with officials from Mbeki’s office - Pikoli’s temporary replacement pulled the arrest warrant and unsuccessfully tried to do the same with the search warrants. But, to his credit, Mokotedi Mpshe continued to do a policeman’s work.
 
President Mbeki lied to the nation about Selebi
 Selebi will soon be charged with defeating the ends of justice by protecting crime suspects, corruption and racketeering. The details of the indictment, most of which would have been available to Mbeki in September, range from soliciting petty bribes to a charge that Selebi abused his Interpol access to protect Agliotti. Mbeki protested publicly that no one had given him cause to doubt Selebi, but we now know that, in addition to the many detailed reports by investigative journalists - which should have been enough for him to act - the evidence gathered by official investigators has been there for Mbeki to pick up and read, at least since May. We now know that he deliberately ignored this information. It is impossible to conclude otherwise than that our President lied to the nation when, in announcing Selebi’s suspension last week, he said: 'I have said this before many times: if there was anybody who brought information to me that showed that the national commissioner of police had done wrong things, I would act on it. And nobody did.' You betrayed our trust, Mr President. Now we ask: dare we trust you any longer?