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SERIOUSLY ILL: Jackie Selebi was admitted to hospital after collapsing on hearing the court dismissed his appeal.
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Disgraced former police commissioner Jackie Selebi – who is due to start his prison term tomorrow – has possibly suffered a partial stroke and is expected to undergo a major operation.
As Selebi received treatment in the Jakaranda Hospital in Pretoria, a reliable source close to the family – who didn’t want to be named – said yesterday that Selebi had collapsed upon hearing that the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) had dismissed his appeal on Friday, effectively meaning a 15-year prison sentence for him.
“His left side of his body has collapsed. It is completely numb. He has kidney problems and he has high blood pressure,” said the source.
“We suspect that he has had a stroke.”
The source could not provide details regarding Selebi’s “big operation” due for February next year.
His lawyers would say nothing about the nature of his illness yesterday, saying his family wanted it to remain private.
One of his lawyers, Wynanda Coetzee, confirmed that they were arranging for Selebi to hand himself over to the nearest prison.
But by late yesterday they were still unsure when and how. She said it was possible that he would be delivered to one of the Gauteng prisons by ambulance.
Correctional Services spokesman Sonwabo Mbananga said “the court instruction was clear”, that Selebi should hand himself to prison authorities within 48 hours.
He said there would be no special treatment for the former top cop.
Mbananga said Selebi could be kept in a prison hospital.
“It depends on what he is suffering from. If he is suffering from a headache that doesn’t require specialised medical care, he will be able to stay at a prison hospital,” he said.
Mbananga said if Selebi was seriously ill, he could be transferred to a state hospital and kept there under prison guard.
Selebi could apply for medical parole if his doctors believed he was terminally ill, as did the fraudster and former financial adviser to President Jacob Zuma, Schabir Shaik. He, like Selebi, was sentenced to 15 years but served just two years. He spent most of his term in hospital.
Dr Jamil Mujuzi, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of the Western Cape who has published articles on parole, said Selebi could “immediately on arrival” apply for medical parole.
“The purpose of medical parole is to enable the inmate to ‘die a consolatory and dignified death’,” Mujuzi said.
In addition to the impending incarceration and ill health, Selebi is also facing a possible attachment of his assets.
The Department of Justice said it would begin the process “as soon as possible” of trying to reclaim between R15 million and R17m in legal fees.
Justice Department spokesman Tlali Tlali said: “The procedures include the calculation of the actual amount due and payable as well as interacting with Mr Selebi through his lawyers on how the process will unfold. He may want to make representations.”
However the State is likely to only receive a portion of the amount paid in legal fees, since Selebi’s assets amount to less than R4m.
In addition to about R400 000 in savings, he and his wife Anna own a property valued at about R3m.
Stellenbosch University Contract Law Professor Gerhard Lubbe said if Selebi “does not pay, they can take judgment and try to attach assets”.
Selebi was found guilty for, among other things, accepting what the court has described as a bribe of more than R150 000 from the then-crime suspect Glen Agliotti, whom the former police commissioner once called a “friend, finish and klaar”.
Asked whether he had seen his old friend since his admission to hospital, Agliotti said: “No I haven’t seen him. I just got back from Singapore.”
It is not clear if Selebi would appeal to the highest court in the land – the Constitutional Court. Concourt only hears matters pertaining to constitutional disputes.
By late yesterday afternoon, Coetzee said doctors hadn’t allowed his lawyers to see him, and as a result had not been able to consult about a Concourt challenge.
But Stellenbosch University Professor Geo Quinot said “it is very rare” that Concourt hears appeals in criminal cases.
“There must be a constitutional ground for approaching the court and you must also show that it is in the interest of justice that the case be heard in Concourt.
“I have not read the full SCA judgment but it seems that it was a fairly straightforward criminal case,” Quinot said. – Sunday Independent
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