Former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi - recently released from prison on medical parole after serving less than eight months of a 15-year sentence for corruption - has yet to pay back the R17 million taxpayers forked out for his legal defence.
Selebi’s high-powered defence team was paid from State resources. Having lost his appeal against the sentence in December, however, the former top cop became liable for “losses or damages incurred by an institution due to an act committed by an official”, according to the Public Finance Management Act.
And though the act requires such funds to be collected “within 30 days or in reasonable instalments”, Selebi’s successor, former commissioner Bheki Cele, failed to act on the outstanding debt.
Cele has since been fired for his involvement in the police headquarters leasing scandal.
The new commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, has said through her spokesman Nonkululeko Mbatha that the police were looking into the matter.
Mbatha told City Press at the weekend that Phiyega was “applying her mind to the process” of recouping the money.
“It should be proper for the new management to apply its mind before acting,” he told the newspaper, explaining that only once “certain processes” had been completed would there be “clarity” on how Selebi, pictured, would repay the debt to taxpayers.
But the DA is not satisfied with this explanation.
The party’s police spokeswoman, Dianne Kohler Barnard, said on Monday that it was not enough for Phiyega to be applying her mind to the problem, but that “she needs to act”.
“It has been almost a year since the disgraced former police commissioner (Selebi) lost his appeal to have his fraud conviction overturned… Selebi only spent 229 days in prison and the minister of police and (Selebi’s) now-disgraced successor (Cele) failed to reclaim this vast sum from their ANC colleague in this time. It is time for Phiyega to get her mind around this problem and start taking steps to recover the money,” Barnard said.
The DA MP also said she would be writing to Phiyega to “clarify what exactly the process is to recover Selebi’s legal fees”. Kohler Barnard noted that the money owed by Selebi could “fund the salaries of more than 200 police constables for a year”.
Meanwhile, mystery shrouds Selebi once more as reports on Monday suggested the former commissioner - who technically remains under house arrest - had not reported for dialysis treatment at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in more than a week.
When he was released two weeks ago, doctors explained that Selebi’s serious kidney condition required dialysis treatment at least every two days. It is not yet known whether Selebi is receiving treatment elsewhere, but the New Age newspaper reported on Monday that an unnamed woman answered the phone at Selebi’s home on Sunday and told the newspaper he was “recovering at home”. - Cape Argus