Fresh from hosting a World Cup, which FIFA said was one of the best organised in recent times, South Africa gained bonus points yesterday when it sentenced Jackie Selebi, the country’s former police chief and head of Interpol, to 15 years in jail for corruption.
Mr Selebi was accused of taking 1.2 million rand, or $165, 000, in bribes from Glenn Agliotti, a convicted drug smuggler said to have participated in the 2005 murder of Brett Kebble, a South African mining magnate. Prosecutors said, as head of police, Mr Selebi used his position to subvert investigations into drug trafficking. His conviction proves that the country’s anti-corruption crusade is serious, and will spare no one. Mr Selebi, a close ally of Thabo Mbeki, and the former permanent envoy to the United Nations, must have thought himself above the law. In court he showed no emotions; a man confident of the outcome. “At no stage during the trial did the accused display any indication of remorse. The accused lied and fabricated evidence in an endeavour to escape the consequences of his conduct,” noted Meyer Joffe, the judge who sentenced him.
There were initial fears that any harsh sentence on a man so highly connected might have unpredictable political consequences. There were even talks that such an action could lead to political instability. None of that seemed likely now, and analyst say the trial has been a positive development for the country, proof that it is ready to tackle its growing corruption problem. A smug ANC also said that the guilty verdict showed that no one is above the law in South Africa.
One cannot say the same thing about Nigeria, where the anti-corruption war seemed to have fizzled out. A number of high profile cases have in recent times been bungled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, and the police. For instance, despite a massive manhunt, (former Delta State Governor) James Ibori escaped from Nigeria and would have escaped justice where it not for the efforts of Interpol which arrested him in Dubai.
In recent times, officials of the anti-corruption agencies, including Farida Waziri, who heads the EFCC, have themselves been accused of corrupt practices. Little wonder, cases involving Haliburton, Siemens, and Daimler, in which Nigerian officials were indicted, remain in limbo here when courts abroad have since disposed of them, jailing those convicted and making billions of naira for their countries. Analysts say this obvious failure in President Goodluck Jonathan’s much touted anti-corruption drive will have grave repercussions on his expected candidacy in the 2011 elections.