Truth on Selebi still to be heard

Both Deputy Justice Minister Thabang Makwetla and Water Affairs and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane told the 1000-strong crowd gathered in the Durban City hall that they did not believe all had been told.

"The story of the trial of comrade Jackie, just like [the story of] Chris Hani, is as yet to be told," said Mokonyane.

She said the criminal justice system needed be transformed. The system needed to be changed so it was no longer possible that "the main suspect can opportunistically convert himself to be a State witness and lie, fabricate without verification 
information, and the one who should have been a reliable source of divulging becomes the suspect.

"[Glen] Agliotti is out in the streets. Jackie Selebi is no more."

Her comments followed that of Deputy Justice Minister Thabang Makwetla, who said: "I do not believe the full story of what happened.

"The truth of what happened when Jackie was on his last assignment will come out," he said.

Makwetla said Selebi had fought for South Africa in the fight against apartheid. Selebi served under him in an ANC camp in Angola.

Both Mokonyane and Makwetla praised Selebi's role in the ANC and South Africa. They both said that Selebi's corruption conviction should not overshadow the role Selebi played in the liberation of South Africa.

Mokonyane said: "Like any other human being he was never born a saint and he never claimed to be a saint."

She said the ANC was proud to lay claim to Selebi as one of its members.

Selebi was convicted of corruption after Agliotti turned State witness and claimed he had paid Selebi more than R1.2 million in bribes.

Selebi was the first black person to be appointed as the country's national police commissioner after the end of apartheid.