Police chief Selebi to face trial in May
15 April 2009

Police commissioner Jackie Selebi is expected to go on trial in May in spite of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) asking for a postponement until next January.

Judge Meyer Joffe in the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, postponed the trial until May 4 to allow prosecutors to hear the outcome of a petition to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and to finalise their investigation.  But the judge made it clear that the state should be ready to proceed when the court meets next month to assess progress in the case. “We need to know whether the charges were founded or unfounded,” Joffe said.

Selebi has been investigated since January 2006, and was charged in February last year. He has not pleaded to the three counts of corruption and defeating the ends of justice. The prosecution petitioned the SCA for leave to appeal against the February decision of Judge Nico Coetzee, who ordered the prosecution to give Selebi most of the documents he needed to prepare for trial. The prosecution failed in its application for leave to appeal against the high court decision.

Selebi’s advocate, Jaap Cilliers, said that if the SCA refused the state’s petition Selebi was prepared to abandon the February high court order so that his case could proceed as soon as possible.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel told Joffe yesterday that this was a first request for a postponement although Selebi had appeared in court twice before.  Nel said the delay in the prosecution’s preparation for trial was because of Selebi’s request for further particulars and lack of co-operation from the police.  Nel said the prosecution team had had a number of meetings since February 2007 with senior police officials to get them to co-operate in their investigation.  He said the prosecution was forced to issue subpoenas to a number of senior police officials to get the information it required.

However, Cilliers told the court that the defence was uncertain as to when the state would be ready, and urged Joffe to refuse the state’s request for postponement.  Cilliers said that nothing would prevent the prosecution from charging the accused in the future.  “Investigations have been going on for three years already. Now they tell you they need a couple of months,” Cilliers said.

He said that up until March 23 this year, the prosecution was ready to proceed with the case, and that Selebi had been told that his side was ready.

Cilliers said the prosecution had almost all the statements required from the police.

Ernst Mabuza, www.businessday.co.za