What on earth is going on at the Brett Kebble murder trial? So far two state witnesses have testified that they were involved in the killing of former mining magnate and ANC Youth League benefactor, Brett Kebble. They claim it was an “assisted suicide” and that they were so bad at the job that they were only successful at killing Kebble on the third attempt. Who could have made up this stuff?
First, boxer turned hit-man, Mikey Schultz, testified that he had actually pulled the trigger (after several bumbling attempts), but that Glen Agliotti had nothing to do with the murder. They then “sped off” (but kept to the speed limit for fear of being caught on a speed camera) and destroyed the murder weapon in a chop-shop before melodramatically dumping the pieces of the gun into the sea.
Then ex Transvaal rugby player turned gangster (what is it with these sportsmen – can we ask some of them to go to work on the All Blacks before the next Tri-Nations game?), Nigel McGurk, told the court of his involvement in several hits – including the Kebble hit – but again stated that Agliotti had nothing to do with the murder of Kebble. (McGurk, like Schultz, may not be a very good witness, as advocate Laurence Hodes, appearing for Agliotti, at one point told him: “You’ve got a memory like red wine, it improves over time”.)
Yet Glen Agliotti is the person standing trial for the murder of Brett Kebble, while the two people who actually now claim to have killed Kebble are state witnesses and may well obtain indemnity from prosecution if the court finds that they testified frankly and honestly about the murder.
(Advocate Gerrie Nel, the guy who secured the corruption conviction against former police chief Jackjie Selebi, was supposed to lead the prosecution in this case but Menzi Simelane decided at the last minute to replace him. Not surprisingly, the new prosecutors appeared unprepared to lead the evidence: the lead prosecutor Advocate Dan Dakana today were constantly told what to ask by his colleague Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka.)
In any event, this arrangement by the NPA to offer possible indemnity to Kebble’s killers in order to prosecute Glen Agliotti, who may or may not have been involved directly with the murder at all, does not – on the available evidence – seem very wise or fair.
Of course, the trial is far from over and it might yet transpire that Agliotti was the mastermind behind the murder of Kebble and that the NPA had every reason to cut a deal with the actual killers to get to the “big fish”. But if it is found that Agliotti was not involved or that his involvement was not central to the killing, many questions will be asked about the decision by the NPA to cut a deal with the very people who claim to have killed Kebble.
Whatever transpires, there was nothing illegal in the deal done by the NPA with Shultz and McGlurk. Section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act allows the NPA to cut deals like this and if the judge finds that any witness has testified “frankly and honestly”, the judge may indemnify that witness from prosecution – even if the witness had incriminated him or herself in the very crime he or she is testifying about. The discretion to grant indemnity is in the hands of the judge, so if the judge finds that a witness has not been frank and honest, the judge may refuse to grant indemnity to that witness – regardless of any deal done between that witness and the NPA.
Could it be that the NPA is playing a very clever game to try and secure the conviction of all the main players in this drama? Did the NPA offer indemnity to the main killers, knowing that they would be such bad witnesses that they would not testify frankly and honestly, thus making it impossible for the judge to grant them indemnity and opening the way for their own prosecution? Probably not, because section 204(4) states that the self-incriminating evidence of a witness denied indemnity could not be used against him if that witness were to be tried later.
This means that if Schultz or McGurg is not granted indemnity and the NPA decided to prosecute them for the murder of Kebble, the NPA would not be able to rely on the evidence led in court over the past two days in which they had explained in detail how they had killed Kebble.
Unless the NPA has more evidence up its sleeve implicating Agliotti as the mastermind of the Kebble murder, the indemnity granted to all the other main players in this drama makes little sense. Unless, of course, this was done to put pressure on Agliotti to force him to testify against his old friend Jackie Selebi. “If you do not testify truthfully against Selebi and implicate him, we will prosecute you for the murder of Kebble, so you better testify.”
If this was indeed the case – and I stress, it is too early to say for certain that it was – then many questions will be asked about the manner in which the NPA acted in these matters and the wisdom of the deals it cut. Although it is very important for the state to prosecute very powerful people like Selebi on charges of corruption (after all, when the top cop in the country is corrupt, the whole criminal justice system becomes suspect), I am not sure that it would be more important than securing the conviction of the actual murderers in a murder case – even where the case is one of alleged “assisted suicide”.
Personally I will withhold judgment on this until the end of the Kebble trial. Who knows what other evidence will be led by the state to vindicate its decision to cut a deal with the very people who now claim to have pulled the trigger in order for the NPA to go after the man who was found to have bribed the top cop.
Whatever happens though, the case has already provided utterly bizarre and riveting testimony. Surely somebody at ETV (or one day when they have money again, the SABC) must be commissioning a drama series based on these events. It has everything: political intrigue; larger than life characters (some of them marginally known sportsmen), a murder victim who was alleged to have led a triple life, sex and scandal with the alleged involvement of a rent boy, and office politics in the NPA.
NOTE: Some of the details in this post were gleaned from the riveting Twitter feeds posted by the Mail & Guardian amaBhungane reporter following the Kebble trial. Find them at: http://twitter.com/amaBhungane.
If Agliotti walks before he talks (more) a lot of politicians and others engaged in organised crime are going to breathe huge sighs of relief.
So, the question is:
Who gains most by Agliotti’s acquittal?
Does anybody have a copy of Agliotti’s affidavit used in his bail application? From press reports at the time I got the impression that Agliotti admitted some involvement in the “assisted suicide” but can’t recall the details.
Remember the cases of Nbakwa, Peverett, Gordon, Grotjohn and Hibbert we had to know so well when studying criminal law? Assisted suicide is not a defence on a charge of murder.
Like Pierre I will also not make a bet on either side’s success at this stage, but would have love to attend the trail myself.
Just one last remark: I don’t think Mikey Schultz or Nigel McGurk would have agreed to testify unless they knew the State had a solid case against them and testifying for the State is the only way they have to keep out of jail.
As far as I remember, the Kebble family, through their lawyer,objected to the Nel prosecuting team anyway and made it clear they planned to challenge it in court if they continued. Anyway, what is more important to note is the “justice” that the NPA under Pikoli pursued.
1. A convicted drug dealer walks away from corruption charges at the expense of Selebi. Who is more likely to be rehabilitated and maybe useful to society in the future Agliotti or Selebi?
2. Same convicted drug dealer seems about to walk away again from a conviction on the Kebble murder, thanks to his fellow criminals also getting S204 indemnity.
3. What about Mark Thatcher.
4. Remember that businessman who abused an indigent boy from Alexandra.
5. How can I forget Agliotti’s sentence for the drug dealing conviction. I cant wait for his friends in the drug dealing case, which is still pending to go to court. I bet they will walk away from it all too.
Is this your idea of justice too?
As a general enquiry, I’m not sure what circumstances would typically have to obtain before prosecuting powerful public people would become a strong enough object to justify entering into indemnity deals with murderers. (I’m not even sure whether this is an appropriate enquiry.) But leaving aside the above questions, perhaps we could get the ball rolling with a slightly narrower investigation: was Selebi so much of a scumbag that running the risk of letting Kebble’s murderers off the hook was worth doing in order to stand a better chance at successfully prosecuting the former commissioner? One answer is that improving the chances of securing a conviction against Selebi was more important than seeing justice meted out against people who killed an eminently bad guy – and believe it or not, I say so while at the same time sympathising with Kebble’s loved one’s for their loss.
@ Leigh – it seems to run deeper than Selebi!
“THE retiring Gauteng commissioner of police had his farewell party in the house of a shady character – a brothel king.
Outgoing Gauteng police chief Perumal Naidoo was hosted by the Hillbrow Business Forum at a house owned by Alan Kukard.
Kukard is also the owner of the Hillbrow Inn and Maxima, among the best known brothels in the area, just outside the Johannesburg CBD.
The party was held ata posh housein Houghton on Thursday.
It was attended by senior police officers, among them cluster commander of Hillbrow, Theko Pharasi, Jeffrey Meyer, who is tipped to be the new station commander at Hillbrow police station and businessman Marvin Resant.
Naidoo, 57, who has cited ill-health as the reason for retiring, is handing in his badge after 37 years years in the police force.
Kukard has been described as an old school Mafia, with many politicians in his pockets.
He has many people who front for him but his right-hand man is Marvin Resant, according to sources.”
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/07/27/brothel-king-hosts-top-cop_s-farewell
Magga Naidu, so what. Perumal Naidoo is Alan Kukard’s friend, finnish and klaar.
Why Pierre – were you in court and actually saw Adv Dakana being prompted by Adv Gcaleka? In any case, in your book what is wrong with members of the same prosecution team conferring when leading evidence? Really, your apparent contempt for the NPA and its head is seriously clouding your reporting about anything NPA and affecting the credibility of your opinions.
Maggs:
Would you agree that the members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Safety and Security – who were tasked with parliamentary oversight of the SAPS during the reign of Jackie Selebi, when the SAPS was infiltrated at such a high level by members of organised crime – should do the honourable thing by resigning their office and withdrawing from public life?
Brett Nortje says:
July 28, 2010 at 10:06 am
I think you should do the honourable thing and join GFSA!
You braying burro! Answer the question!
From all the plea bargains and amnesty going on this looks like a circus designed to give a “show” of justice only for everyone to walk in the end!
Hope I’m wrong.
what I fail to conceive is that the perpetrators are left out to catch an assistant, is this what s204 serves to archive?
leigh, may you please clarify.
So the NPA changes its team just before the start of the trial?
Is the NPA trying to torpedo its case by giving its advocates a hospital pass?
Maybe it is all for show and Agliotti will get off. Perhaps there’s more to this than Selebi?
You are shocking really Pierre. Why is it with you that everything that is done by a black man is wrong to you. The fact that Simelane changed the team from a white man to blacks is so obviously painful to you. You call them the “new team” and yet you don’t want them to confer with each other, you don’t want them to work as a team. When they confer this each other you say they are “unprepared”.
You also say mention that ” In any event, this arrangement by the NPA to offer possible indemnity to Kebble’s killers in order to prosecute Glen Agliotti, who may or may not have been involved directly with the murder at all, does not – on the available evidence – seem very wise or fair.” Are you aware that this not “very wise” decision was taken by Nel and the new team could not change it. The new team “inherited” a very bad decisions from Nel.
African, your post seems a tad reactionary and sexist (why refer to a black man and exclude all black women?). In any case, it is laughably contradictory. If this is all about race, why would I have questioned the decision by Nel and his team who, as you point out and as I know very well, is white? So, if I question Simelane’s actions I am a racist, and if I question Nel’s actions I am also a racist? Not very logical, I must say. In any case, I utterly fail to see how you can claim that I believe “everything done by a black man (sic) is wrong”. It is either wrong, or it is not. Sometimes I believe actions taken by black men and women are wrong. Then I point it out. Sometimes I believe actions taken by white men and women are wrong. Then I point it out too. Implicit in your post is the assumption that if a white person criticizes a decision by any black person that is merely done out of racial prejudice. Although there are people around who might criticize people on the basis of their skin colour, assuming that this is always the case (without looking at the facts) is rather sloppy and illogical. If you want your view to be taken seriously, you will have to make an analysis of all my writing and demonstrate that I never criticize white men (and women!) and only criticize black men (and women!), something that you would be unable to do – starting with this very post in which I question the actions of Nel and his team who are white. If you think I am being unfair or wrong in my criticism, then why do you not rather engage with the substantive issue and say why you think so? Then we can have a good discussion about it and maybe learn something from one another. I am always ready to learn new things and even to change my mind if somebody can present a good argument for why I am wrong. Are you?
Oh, by the way African, I got the information about the unpreparedness of the prosecution from the Twitter feed mentioned. This feed was written by a black woman (but not by a man – maybe that is where I went wrong: I believed a woman who was actually in court).
It is majorly discouraging that with every event or value conflict in SA, the race issue comes up so consistently, and I do understand the matter of bantu education which are subconscious and usually unrecognized feelings of inferiority produced by long term lack of opportunity, all the damage inflicted by Apartheid.
My guess is that if it wasn’t for the rampant incompetence, corruption, greed and criminality, all of which inevitably produces a sense of uncertainty and defensiveness in the perpetrator, that clearer thinking could be realized.
Because of years of wounding, so few of the issues we deal with are clear enough to be rational. Rather they are emotional, and often tempered with hate, muddy thinking, and fear.
As for Selebi, yes, its more important to make a case against him than petty drug dealers and murderers. His position was not only national but international (re Interpol). In a sense his actions have been treasonous in that they have betrayed SA’s ability to be honest in the world’s eyes. And I would suggest he has seriously betrayed both the international community via Interpol and SA on the world stage.
He has shamed and weakened all of us.
African says:
July 28, 2010 at 16:17 pm
Setting aside for now the issue that Pierre may consider “everything that is done by a black man is wrong”, do you think the prosecution team was adequately prepared?
If as you say “(t)he new team ‘inherited’ a very bad decisions from Nel”, should they be proceeding with it?
Why not just withdraw the case?
Surely it cannot be correct to proceed on inherited, very bad decisions through our courts, wasting huge resources and possibly doing incredible harm to the accused.
Aren’t our courts already overburdened?
African is right.
Pierre, you may not take refuge in the liberal notion of formal equality. What I mean is that you cannot deflects an allegation of racism by pointing out that you criticize white men just as vigorously as you criticize black men. That may be so. But the burden is upon you to demonstrate than you criticize white men MORE than you criticize black men.
That is so for three (3) reasons:
1. You must compensate for the historical singling out of black men for criticism.
2 You have no standing, as a white man, to criticize a black man.
3. Black men are (objectively), less often wrong than white men.
Thanks.
It looks like an ant giving birth to an elephant.
http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35374:dti-to-settle-with-valor-it
Today 702 claims the minister has resurfaced with a visible scar and claims he fell from the stairs.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=79&art_id=vn20100725073525569C564670
Well, may be uncle Trevor did not tell us the whole truth?
What recession?
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=116525
Gwebecimele says:
July 30, 2010 at 10:11 am
hahahaha – sounds like he got smacked for messing with someone’s wife.
If so he deserves it.
If not – those darn stairs!
Gwebecimele says:
July 30, 2010 at 10:16 am
Did you believe that at the time?
Just the vessel/cargo movements alone out of our ports at the time were painting a radically different picture.
Gwebecimele says:
July 30, 2010 at 10:11 am
Hey Gwebs,
There’s more madness going on!
“Mrs Gigaba stood up
Jul 30, 2010 | Francis Hweshe | 13 comments
The wife of Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba arrived at court for a domestic violence case, after she applied for a protection order against him.
But her husband was not there to defend himself against her allegation of “emotional, financial and psychological abuse”.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/07/30/mrs-gigaba-stood-up
@ Maggs
Hahaahahah!!!!!!!!!
We are all human after all.
Well there might be some actions from long forgotten corners.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/07/30/xingwana-wields-axe-at-corrupt-officials
From Jeremy @ politicsweb
The editor-in-chief is Vuyo Mvoko …a very nice fellow, but as someone acquainted with him – no names, no pack drill – remarked to me: nice guys seldom produce good newspapers. It’s the shits who do that.
Then, coming in as deputy sheriff is none other than Karima Brown, the political editor of Business Day. Now, look, not everyone is happy at Avusa and not everyone necessarily gets on wonderfully with P Bruce, the editor. But, geez, surely Karima knows better than to go to a newspaper that is not even running yet and that has announced from the get-go that it’s into sunshine journalism.
Yo! Eish! Vuyo and the fellers could end up in the dock charged with being accessories in Brown’s “assisted suicide” as a journalist.
It grows even more frightening when one discovers that the man tipped to be the Opinion Editor is none other than the very opinionated RS Roberts.
Now RS Roberts is of course entitled to his opinions – though it’s been quite pleasant for the last few years not having to read them – and there are even some strange folk, such as Essop Pahad, who seem to like Roberts’ convoluted maunderings.
But, as I understand the matter, the trouble with our Ron is that he’s a trifle, shall we say, abrasive. I read just last week that he spent the whole of the launch party of the New Age calling Mondli Makhanya, the country’s highest-earning weekly columnist, a four-letter word that is not usually bruited about among polite people.
@ Maggs
Who ever did this job is better than the Kebble assailants.
After so many days the Minister is still battling to walk.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article577045.ece/Shiceka-reappears-with-limp
@ Maggs
Another take at SAP and the award
http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35322:reputation-suicide&catid=105
Where are those Fifa profits? We need cash badly.
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=421234
Gwebecimele says:
August 3, 2010 at 16:12 pm
It’s nothing more than a publicity stunt in my opinion. I was going to say cheap, but I reckon that there is a pretty packet that was spent.
The cost to our economy is huge – for that there is a award.
Eish!
Gwebecimele says:
August 3, 2010 at 16:21 pm
Hey Gwebs,
Check this out!
“Cape Town – South Africans will no longer be able to hide funds in six of the world’s so-called tax haven states after the South African Revenue Service struck information sharing deals with these countries.
As part of a global push to clamp down on tax havens, Sars has signed a watershed agreement with Guernsey, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Jersey, the Bahamas and San Marino which will force these countries to hand over any information Sars requires.
All Sars has to do is ask and, according to the agreements, information “shall” be provided for relevant determinations, investigations and enforcement.”
http://www.fin24.com/Economy/Sars-unlocks-tax-havens-20100804
There’s gonna be some very nervous South Africans around!
@ Maggs
Lets hope they put this agreement to good use.
There has been rumours of many people who have not submitted tax returns for years including Kebble.
http://www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=1026&fArticleId=vn20060228035409211C766231
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article342200.ece/Malema-hasnt-submitted-tax-returns
Health MEC asks for probe into ID contract
GAUTENG health MEC Qedani Mahlangu has called in the Special Investigating Unit to look at a contract won by the Baoki Consortium to supply Gauteng’s health department with a R590m health information system — which has since been aborted.
by Businessday
YES WE CAN FIGHT CORRUPTION!!!!
I hope all public officials are getting the message.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Lear-jet-seized-in-R200m-fraud-raid-20100825
PdV
WE ARE UNDER ATTACK AGAIN