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Selebi drops NPA action
02/03/2008 16:14 - (SA)
Jackie Mapiloko
Johannesburg - The high-profile cases of National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi and former transport minister Mac Maharaj against the Scorpions were struck off the roll last week.
Maharaj's case against the Scorpions and its "disruptive" powers was removed from the Pretoria High Court roll last week.
Selebi's lawyers informed the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Friday that they would abort the application to stop their client from being prosecuted.
Selebi and his legal team have cancelled their application to prevent the Scorpions from charging him with corruption.
In January, Selebi launched an urgent application at the Pretoria High Court demanding more information about the charges the NPA intended to bring against him and the names of those who had given affidavits against him.
Selebi said the Scorpions were fighting for their survival and had launched a media campaign to discredit him. He maintained he had no idea what the allegations against him entailed.
Abuse of court process
NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said the application was nothing but an abuse of the court process.
"It was clear to us from the onset that this application was misplaced as it sought to canvass issues that could have been left for the trial court to pronounce on.
"The decision to prosecute was carefully considered and certainly not a chance-taking exercise," said Tlali.
Selebi's lawyer, Wynanda Coetzee, said on Saturday that her client got everything they wanted during the urgent court application.
Coetzee said it was "now for the public to find out his innocence during the trial".
Maharaj's lawyer, Rudi Krause, confirmed that the case was removed from the roll but wouldn't be drawn into giving reasons why.
"The matter will not be going ahead as planned as it had been removed from the roll as agreed by both parties. It will be put back on at another stage, but I don't know when," said Krause.
NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said Maharaj's lawyers and state counsel were not available on the date set and had agreed that the matter should be removed from the roll.
"Due to counsel for the applicant and the state being unavailable, parties agreed to have the matter removed from the roll. The onus rests entirely with the applicant to have the case placed on the roll again."
NPA Act
Maharaj took the NPA and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla to court. He said the NPA Act gave Scorpions' investigators powers to help investigators in interrogations under Section 28 of the NPA Act.
This section allows investigators to summon the accused to appear and produce documents, denying them the right to silence. In papers before court, Maharaj says he is fighting for the right to a fair trial if the NPA indicts him.
He says Section 35(1)(c) of the Constitution "confers a guarantee against self-incrimination - in particular the right not to be compelled to make confessions or admissions and the right to refrain from giving self-incriminating evidence.
"The right not to be compelled to give self-incriminating evidence is integrally linked to the right to silence and forms a fundamental component of the right to a fair trial."
Last year, City Press reported that the Maharajs were being probed for their secret offshore accounts.
While still a minister, Maharaj received about R2m between 1996 and 2000 from convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik. Shaik had received two multimillion-rand tenders for credit card-type driver's licences and for the N3 toll road between Johannesburg and Durban.
Money transfer
City Press found that Shaik, the former boss of Nkobi Holdings, used a company he established offshore, Minderly Investment, to put money into a Banque SCS Alliance account belonging to Zarina Maharaj.
Documents showed that on October 16 1996, 579 999 French francs (about R753 555 at current exchange rates), was put into her account by Minderly.
The Minderly account was opened on October 11 1996 and Zarina Maharaj's three days later.
On March 13 1997, Minderly put $100 000 (about R776 000) into her account.
Six days after the payment, $96 000 was debited from this account to another in Zarina Maharaj's name at Allied Dunbar Bank.
About 27 days after this payment, $65 000 was debited to this account. It was opened by her in the 1980s. In 2000, a $54 268 cheque was issued to her and the account was closed.
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