Why+I+had+to+expose+Selebi,+Mapiloko+and+Sefara,+City+Press

City Press, Johannesburg, 18/11/2006 21:08 - (SA)
=‘Why I had to expose Selebi’=


 * Jackie Mapiloko and Makhudu Sefara**

Paul O’Sullivan looked at members of the media and shed tears during his press conference on Friday.

He clearly looked like an embittered man in search of what he called justice against National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi – the man he blames for losing his job as head of security at Africa’s busiest airport, OR Tambo International Airport.

O’Sullivan told the media how his life was torn apart and his family adversely affected by his “illegal” dismissal by Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) CEO Monhla Hlahla.

He then went on to tell Selebi to step down because he was a disgrace to the nation. A few minutes later, when talking about friends and family who lent him money and how he lived out of a suitcase, O’Sullivan let a few tears fall as he struggled for composure.

Some journalists suggested the tears were staged and his motives should be questioned.

An e-mail O’Sullivan sent to Clifford Lyons of the Independent Complaints Directorate contains a paragraph that hints at intentions to smear Selebi and a planned “trial by media”.

“In view of the fact that Selebi claimed all that I have said is untrue, I have decided to make this communication available to the Sunday Times. Maybe trial by media will remove this country from the brink of a police state,” he said. But where did it all start?

Airport sources say O’Sullivan’s problems began when he failed a vetting process after Cabinet decided airports were national key points: “He was sent questions he would be asked and was then asked lots of follow-up questions – and he failed dismally.”

But that was his first test.

The second related to a five-year security plan for the airport, which Acsa management felt was sub-standard. O’Sullivan’s battles with management over the Kusela contract, which would cost R130 million if terminated, did not help.

“He became insubordinate to Hlahla and was fired,” said intelligence sources.

But O’Sullivan claims that Selebi had vested interests in the appointment and continued engagement of Kusela Security because its boss Noel Ngwenya was Selebi’s friend.

Selebi says he was not going to allow the contract to be terminated and a security vacuum created at the airport. He pointed out that when Kusela was appointed in 1999 he had not yet joined the SAPS. He joined in 2000.

The cancellation of O’Sullivan’s police reservist position at the airport ultimately provided the spark that resulted in the war now raging between the two men.

O’Sullivan says Hlahla and Selebi ganged up on him, with Selebi saying police would not have meetings with him, and Hlahla allegedly asking him not to hand over a dossier on Kusela involving fraud of R30 million to police investigators.

“I lied to her, saying that I had already handed it over and then went to hand it over immediately,” he said.

He later told City Press that his lies were better than those told by Selebi because they were “good lies”.

O’Sullivan said the fact that Ngwenya was imprisoned for fraud by police under Selebi was unimportant because “they had to act”.

He said Selebi wines and dines with criminals and should be removed from his post.

Glenn Agliotti, a man referred to as The Landlord and with whom Selebi has conceded a friendship, was this week arrested for allegedly facilitating Brett Kebble’s “assisted suicide”.

A diary of Agliotti’s meetings with Selebi is allegedly in the Scorpion’s possession. City Press also learned that the getaway car used after Kebble was killed had also been seized.

But how did Selebi end up with a friend like this? His aides say they met in 1992 when Selebi headed the Repatriation Unit at Shell House, ANC headquarters.

Agliotti made donations of shoes to help comrades returning from exile. As the ANC did not have a proper vetting system, the party didn’t know the backgrounds of people with whom they were dealing.

“Friendships and bonds formed then – but the question is what did Selebi do when he realised that Agliotti is a shadowy character?

“We know relations soured. The last time Agliotti met Selebi was in November last year,” his aides said.


 * From: http://www.news24.com/City_Press/News/0,7515,186-187_2032546,00.html**

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