[I agree with Tony Leon on Mbeki’s amazingly lame trigger finger. Note how reluctant Mbeki is to say anything about Selebi. Note too, how Leon mentions that Selebi might have tried to put a spanner in the works of solving the Brett Kebble assasination! This is NOT GOOD. I’m telling you… something *BIG* is wrong here. I wonder if Mbeki shouldn’t be removed from office for this one hey? Jan]

Johannesburg – The Jackie Selebi affair, as a sidebar of the Brett Kebble saga, has exposed South Africa’s “dark underbelly” and complicated criminal networks, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Wednesday.

Selebi, the national police commissioner, should be suspended and a commission of inquiry appointed as he refused to remove himself from office, Leon told a DA conference on victims on crime.

Important questions were whether Selebi had hindered the Kebble murder investigation and if his connection with alleged underworld boss Glenn Agliotti had impaired the police service’s capacity to do its job.

Selebi was under a “thickening cloud of suspicion” over his links to Agliotti who was arrested last week in connection with Kebble’s murder, Leon said.

Police morale was taking a “savage beating” which was further reason for a commission.

Media frenzy

“A number of senior police officials are reportedly desperate for Selebi to stand down, given the damage allegations against him are doing to the image of the police.”

President Thabo Mbeki had been quick to appoint previous commissions on inquiry such as those on Bulelani Ngcuka and weakening of the rand. ANC Chief Whip Mbulelo Goniwe was recently suspended pending the outcome of an inquiry.

“Unless he now appoints just such an enquiry to probe the allegations against Selebi, the impression will linger that the president acts only when it is politically expedient for him to do so.”

Government had expressed “astonishing denialism” over the matter and its “dawdling” had fuelled a media frenzy which an inquiry and Selebi’s suspension would stop, Leon said.

South Africa could not continue “to fixate on a tawdry made-for-tabloid scandal” that ate away at local and international confidence in the criminal justice system.

Commenting on crime, Leon said violent crime, and particularly murder, was a “terrible equaliser” with no regard for difference in race, religion or wealth.

“Unless we take urgent action, the swelling tidal-wave of lawlessness currently drenching our nation from one end to the other means we will each, at some point, become a victim.”

Steps to address the issue included the strengthening of metropolitan police forces instead of placing them under the national commissioner’s control.

Government’s target of 150 000 active police officers should be met, more recruiting and training of detectives was needed and a better information-sharing network should be created.

Leon said a DA proposal for a specialised SAPS rural safety division could fill the vacuum left by the disbanding of the commandos and protect rural residents.

Data on local crime trends should be available at police stations and national statistics released quarterly.

Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Pol…/p>