Finish and klaar

JACKIE Selebi’s death has not been met with the

sadness and tributes he could have deserved.

The former police commissioner and Interpol

president will not be remembered for his ac-

complishments – his many roles in the ANC, his con-

tribution to the liberation struggle or that he was a

consummate diplomat and a respected senior public

official when he served in the Department of For-

eign Affairs during Nelson Mandela’s presidency.

Not many people remember that he received the

award for International Service for Human Rights

in 1998 or that he was South Africa’s permanent

representative to the United Nations.

Selebi’s strong performance in Foreign Affairs

prompted then-president Thabo Mbeki, a long-

standing friend, to ask him to take over the role of

police commissioner, despite his having no back-

ground in law enforcement.

Soweto-born Selebi became the national police

commissioner in 2000 and the head of Interpol in

2004. He was meant to represent the highest hope

and commitment the country had to turn around

rampant crime and to create a safe South Africa.

Instead, Selebi’s legacy will be shrouded in

infamy: he’ll always be the man who was once South

Africa’s most senior lawman, who was shameless

about his friendship with notorious convicted drug

dealer, Glen Agliotti. He famously remarked of

Agliotti that “he is my friend, finish and klaar”.

He’ll be remembered as the police commissioner

who plotted the demise of the Scorpions and plum-

meted from grace after his conviction on corrup-

tion charges – which stemmed from that friendship

with Agliotti – and his controversial release from

prison on medical parole, after serving just a few

months of his 15-year prison sentence in 2010.

Legacy is a strange animal and life under the

public spotlight is a beast of its own kind. In the

end, Selebi held the whip in his hand for some time,

but he failed to tame the beast or his demons.