Hunter becomes hunted in murky underworld of political imperatives
Oct 10, 2009 10:27 PM | By Mondli Makhanya
It may sound too fantastic to be true, but having heard it from various quarters, I believe it to be largely authentic. The central characters are national police chief, Commissioner Jackie Selebi, and a senior soccer administrator and club owner who may or may not have a missing tooth.
The story begins in Lusaka in the '80s, when agitated Zambian government officials arrived at the ANC offices in central Lusaka and asked to urgently see the political organisation's president, Oliver Tambo.
They told him of a South African man being held at Lusaka's main police station. He was a drug dealer who had claimed to the police that his activities were part of an ANC fundraising drive and told them that the Zambian police should let him go because the proceeds would be used to bring down the apartheid government.
Tambo and other ANC leaders had heard similar stories from different countries before, but had never been able to identify this individual.
An embarra**ed and infuriated Tambo called in one Jackie Selebi, then one of the rising stars in the ANC, and instructed him to find this man.
Off went Selebi to the police station.
Alas, by the time he arrived there, the man had bribed his way to freedom.
A decision was then taken that Selebi remain on the trail of this man and help the authorities in various countries to stop him. He crisscrossed east and southern Africa in search of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Throughout the '80s he would receive many tip-offs from the ANC's network and jump on the next aircraft to whatever capital the man had been spotted or arrested in.
But the man was always two steps ahead of him, bribing officials and receiving tip-offs that Selebi was headed his way
By the time the ANC was unbanned in 1990, Selebi was no closer to nailing his prey. His homecoming joy was tempered by the realisation that he had failed the revered Tambo.
Upon returning to South Africa, Selebi found that the man, who may or may not have a missing tooth, was now a prominent figure in football around whom rumours of criminality were swirling. But there was now the more urgent task of rebuilding the ANC's internal structures, negotiating the transition to democracy and helping the party prepare for power. It was not until his appointment as commissioner in 2000 that Selebi resumed his hunt.
Upon a**uming office he vowed that he owed it to Tambo to put the man behind bars. He also made a pact with himself that he would consider his tenure a failure if he left office with the man, who may or may not have a missing tooth, still at large.
He set top detectives to work on cracking the man's criminal network and to focus on a well-known murder that the man had been implicated in.
The team worked around the clock and by 2002 were on the verge of cracking the case and making the arrest. But a call came from higher up that he should slow down as the man was key to South Africa's securing the rights to host the 2006 Soccer World Cup. Selebi obliged.
South Africa lost the bid to Germany and Selebi resumed his hunt, only to find that the following distance had grown substantially. Then there was a bungled arrest by the Scorpions, which angered Selebi. Still, the hunt continued. But the man proved just as elusive as he was back in the '80s.
Today the man, who may or may not have a missing tooth, is still a prominent soccer administrator, a top businessman and is key to South Africa's hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Those in the know say he has given up his alleged criminal pursuits in favour of being a feted South African who hobnobs with the world's elite. He will most likely never wear an orange overall.
Selebi, on the other hand, is now the hunted. The Scorpions have been on his case for some time now and have apparently uncovered his links to the criminal underworld.
The loyal cadre who hunted the alleged drug smuggler appears to have been drawn into that underworld - to the extent that he is considered a capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses) in the contraband community.
In their hunt for him, the Scorpions discovered that their prey was as elusive to them as the man, who may who or may not have a missing tooth, was to Selebi. And, last week, as they were about to pounce, they were stopped in their tracks.
Whereas the soccer official was saved by his agility and dribbling skills, Selebi is hoping that his political weight will be insurance. So far he has been proven right.
Although he holds no official position, Selebi is a very powerful figure in the ANC. He is part of the "unelected executive", those veteran leaders who wield influence through their length of service in senior ranks of the party. A weak and isolated Thabo Mbeki knows this and cannot afford to lose Selebi.
He needs him to watch his back. That is more important than the fact that - in addition to being the most powerful cop - Selebi may be also be the country's most powerful gangster
