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20:29 10 Feb 12
Brett Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti. Sapa
Bring a cushion - Selebi
Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:00
While Glenn Agliotti, may have given him the affectionate nicknames, "Jackie", "Jax" and "Chief", Jackie Selebi cut a lonely
figure in the High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Dressed in a dark grey suit with a light blue shirt and blue tie, Selebi appeared drawn and tired.
He sat just metres from the man he had once called his "friend,
finished and klaar" and who now testified against him in his
corruption case.
With his bulky body turned away from Selebi, Agliotti sat, then
stood in the witness stand, flanked by three water bottles, as he
detailed their nearly decade-long friendship.
Speaking slowly and clinically, Agliotti described the matching
clothes and shoes he had bought for Selebi as well as family gifts.
He also spoke of their coffee dates, dinners in Melrose with the
Kebbles and the money that characterised interactions he described
at various points as "good and cordial" and "close".
Going through invoices for expensive clothes brought at Sandton
City clothing stores, Agliotti told the court he did not like
wearing certain knitwear and also only wore Hugo Boss golf shirts.
During his testimony Agliotti painted himself as a general agony
aunt to his friends and associates.
He said that at the time he met the Kebbles, it was to help
them, via his relationship with Selebi, to solve "a whole host of
problems".
"They were obviously grateful and understood I had a close
relationship with the accused because they had major difficulties
before that".
He also said Selebi was "obviously grateful" to him for payments
as small as R5000 ? compared to the $1-million "consultancy fee"
Agliotti asked Brett Kebble for access to Selebi.
Selebi also received two larger amounts of R200 000 and R120 000
from Agliotti, in cash packaged in large envelopes.
he court heard that not just Agliotti, but even shop assistants
at Greys in Sandton, referred to Selebi as "chief".
Agliotti's official pseudonym as a police informer was
"Piccone".
In his testimony, he spoke of a project his ex-fiance ran in
2001, called "African Hope" and which Selebi termed a "fantastic
idea".
It had involved United States actor and politician Arnold
Schwarzenegger leading a torch run from Robben Island to the "steps of Parliament", to "raise funds for special Olympics which is for mentally challenged kids".
Agliotti told the court of a Madame Cheng, a "certain Chinese
lady" who had offered him a "ridiculous" amount of money to
transport two containers of "tiles" ? which were really mandrax
tablets to the value of R80-million as well as abalone factory
equipment.
Agliotti later received a R100 000 reward from the police for
informing them about the drug consignment.
During the court lunch break on Tuesday, Selebi walked back into
the nearly empty court room.
Asked by journalists if he did not rather want to go for lunch,
he replied: "I don't have the envelope to buy lunch. I'm waiting
for the big envelope to buy lunch."
Selebi also said he did not want to sit down in the witness box
during the break.
"That bench is too hard. I think I'll bring a cushion for the
cross examination", an experience which, he said, would "be
interesting".