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How the hell can we believe you, Jackie?

HEAT'S ON: National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. Pic. Trevor Samson. 22/9/03. © FM. WAITING PATIENTLY: Police commissioner Jackie Selebi. page 4, sow 18/01/08.
HEAT'S ON: National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. Pic. Trevor Samson. 22/9/03. © FM. WAITING PATIENTLY: Police commissioner Jackie Selebi. page 4, sow 18/01/08.

My oh my. So, if Agliotti keeps quiet, Selebi will keep quiet too. Out of sight, I presume, is out of mind for Selebi.

This is a breathtaking piece of defence from Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi.

He is the head of Interpol, the world's crime-fighting organisation. But he has the audacity to tell us that if he associates with someone consistently linked to criminal activity things are hunky-dory.

If this is not the ultimate in stupidity, or head-in-the-sand outlook, then I don't know what is.

I would forgive Selebi if - when the Mail & Guardian newspaper started linking Glenn Agliotti, criminal gangs and the police commissioner - he had then repudiated the friendship with Agliotti.

He did not. He repeated his mantra about how Agliotti had never discussed crime with him.

Well, commissioner, why didn't you ask your friend about the allegations of crime against him?

These sordid utterances by Selebi did not end there.

Even last week, when Agliotti was spending his first night in jail, Selebi said he would not resign because "even if he was my son, if my son got arrested for whatever allegations, it does not make me an accomplice".

Selebi seems to miss an important point: you cannot choose your family, but you can choose your friends.

Selebi chose Agliotti, defended him for months and failed to check his background.

This alone is enough reason for any decent person to resign.

Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula has been very quiet.

He now needs to show us that he is committed to the removal of crime in our society.

Nqakula must fire Selebi.

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