Agliotti, Selebi had 'friendship of gain'

2009-11-04 12:01

Johannesburg - Explosive evidence of payments made by convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti to corruption-accused former police head Jackie Selebi emerged in court on Wednesday.

“It was a friendship of gain. I think they used each other for what they could gain from the friendship,” said State witness Dianne Muller, the ex-fiancée of Agliotti, in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

The petite blonde gave evidence of payments and gifts made by Agliotti to Selebi.

She detailed an incident when she packed R110 000 for Selebi at office premises she shared with Agliotti.

Selebi looked uncomfortable

“Agliotti rang and said he was running late but was meeting Jackie Selebi. He asked if when Selebi got there I could give him coffee and chat to him until he got there.

“Jackie Selebi arrived… Glenn Agliotti arrived… He went down to the office and handed me money from his briefcase. He asked me to pack R110 000… Agliotti had a money counting machine. I put it in the machine and there was R120 000.

“I counted R110 000 and put it in a white bank bag. I took it down to the boardroom and put the bag in front of Agliotti. He put his hands on the bag and slid it across to Jackie Selebi and said, 'Here you go, my China'.

“Selebi looked decidedly uncomfortable with my presence in the boardroom. He did not touch the bag. It sat on the glass table in front of him. I then went back to my office.

“About 20 or 30 minutes later Glenn shouted Selebi is leaving. I waved goodbye and he [Selebi] had the bank bag in his possession.”

Muller said after Selebi left, she joked that she had received a R10 000 tip for packing the money. She then gave Agliotti the leftover money and he put it in his briefcase.

'Mind my own business'

“I had a discussion with Agliotti and I said that I felt it was not really the way for things to happen that the national police commissioner was to be paid off by Glenn Agliotti.

“He told me to mind my own business.”

Asked by prosecutor Gerrie Nel if she had taken any steps to report the matter, Muller replied: “How do you report something to the police when their boss is the person [implicated]?”

Muller said on average, Selebi came to the offices that she moved her business into in 2004, twice a month, always “dressed in full uniform”. She said one time Agliotti had received a call on his car phone.

“Selebi asked Glenn can he please lend him R10 000 for his son’s birthday party.”

She said Agliotti agreed but said he did not have the money on him and he would have to come and collect it another time.

“Glenn then turned to me and said ‘lend my ass, I’ll never see that money again'."

She said the next morning Selebi arrived at the office.

“Glenn told me he handed over the money.”

Clothes accounts

At another time, she confronted Agliotti about what she considered “exorbitant” amounts of money he was spending on clothes accounts.

“He said it was not for him, that he was buying clothes for Mr Selebi.”

She said she had once gone to a clothing shop in Sandton, Johannesburg to meet Agliotti.

"Mr Selebi was trying on a suit that they were fitting for him in the shop.”

She detailed a time Agliotti had bought a Gucci handbag for Selebi’s wife on a trip to the UK and another time he bought his sons clothing from the Fubu shop in Sandton.

She said Agliotti once gave Selebi’s driver R1 000 to buy takkies as he was running in a marathon.

Muller appeared visibly nervous as she raced through her testimony.

Nel called her style of delivery “a flash of lightning”.

Indemnity

Earlier, Muller was warned that, like Agliotti, she would receive 204 indemnity from prosecution on various charges if she was found to have testified "frankly and honestly".

Judge Meyer Joffe read out the charges to Muller which include “corruption in relation to Selebi, as well as fraud, money laundering and theft in relationship to a Spring Lights account which slain mining magnate Brett Kebble allegedly used to make various payments.

Her testimony follows that of Agliotti who finished 11 days of testimony against his former friend on Tuesday.

Selebi is facing a charge of corruption and another of defeating the ends of justice in connection with at least R1.2m he allegedly received from Agliotti and others in return for favours.

- SAPA