Ex-Hawks head denies ‘interference’ with Selebi prosecution

Major General Prince Mokotedi never regarded himself as close to the disgraced former national commissioner, Jackie Selebi, convicted of corruption in July 2010.

This was alleged yesterday by deputy national director of public prosecutions Willie Hofmeyr during the Mokgoro Inquiry into the NPA’s Nomgcobo Jiba’s and Lawrence Mrwebi’s fitness to hold office.

“I could not have done so,” Mokotedi told The Citizen yesterday.

“I worked with him closely when he was the national commissioner and I was the secretary of the minister’s committee meeting as well as for the MINMEC (Ministers and Members of Executive Councils Meeting). I had to interact with him and the deputy national commissioners on a regular basis to put together the agenda and minutes of both committees. During that time I was with the police secretariat.”

Mokotedi flatly denied being involved with former State prosecutor advocate Gerrie Nel’s arrest during Nel’s investigation of Selebi.

“It is on record that I was forced out of the NPA by the CEO and NDPP at that time. They were charging me for giving interviews to 702 and other media outlets. There was no cloud,” an emphatic Mokotedi said.

Mokotedi left the NPA before he had to face charges of gross insubordination, dissemination of false and misleading information, and bringing the NPA into disrepute, and subsequently took over as a Major General in charge of Gauteng Hawks.

Mokotedi is now at the police head office.

“Another senior official of the NPA, Mr Mokotedi, who was somewhat ironically the head of our Integrity Management Unit, seems to have played a major role at that time.

“He seems to have been integrally involved in putting together the collaboration from the NPA’s side with the police,” Hofmeyr said, referring to attempts to prevent Selebi’s prosecution.

“The Selebi investigation precipitated a major crisis in the NPA. It led to the suspension and removal of Vusi Pikoli as the NDPP. There was a significant amount of political interference, there was particularly obstruction by people in Crime Intelligence, also some of the other intelligence agencies,” Hofmeyr claimed.

“There was a broader concern we developed at the time that there was people in the NPA who were collaborating with those outside the NPA to try and ensure the prosecution didn’t happen.”

Advocate Gerrie Nel, who was prosecuting Selebi, was arrested on the day he returned from holiday.

The idea was to keep Nel out of the picture, Hofmeyr said, while Selebi worked on his urgent application for a permanent stay of prosecution.

In the application were statements made by Jiba and Mrwebi in support of the police investigation into Nel which led to his arrest.

Hofmeyr said Jiba’s husband was convicted of fraud on his trust account and it seems she had “a bit of a grudge” against Nel at that time because of that.

Jiba’s husband was former lawyer and Scorpions member Booker Nhantsi, whose criminal record was expunged by former president Jacob Zuma in September 2010.

Nel, former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Johan Booysen, former national Hawks head Anwa Dramat, former Gauteng Hawks head Shadrack Sibiya and Independent Police Investigative Directorate head Robert McBride, were just some of the people who got in the way of State capture, Hofmeyr said.

Booysen, long the target of Jiba, is expected to testify soon.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.