Selebi a regular at the Spar

Former national police commissioner and convicted fraudster Jackie Selebi is said to be a regular shopper at a Pretoria supermarket, where he "buys Sunday papers, mineral water and juice".

On Sunday, he was photographed at the Spar at Monument Park Shopping Centre. This has led to opposition political parties calling for a review of his medical parole.

A senior staff member at the supermarket, wishing to remain anonymous, said though Selebi was usually in a jovial mood, on Sunday he was suur (sour) and had just paid for his items and left.

"A cashier tried to chat as always but he forced a smile and walked away."

He said Selebi did his shopping alone, his driver waiting for him in a car.

Asked if the former police boss looked sick, the man said: "He does not look like a sick person. He just looks old." He was adamant that he had seen Selebi in the supermarket late last year.

A cashier said she had first seen Selebi at the supermarket in March, seven months after he was discharged from Steve Biko Academic Hospital.

"He has never paid at my till, he prefers tills closer to the door. He is a nice person, he greets and smiles at cashiers," she said.

She had last seen Selebi two weeks ago.

Selebi's shopping excursions have prompted the DA and Freedom Front Plus to call for a review of his parole.

In July last year, an 11-member parole advisory board recommended his release on medical parole due to his end-stage renal failure, which required four dialysis sessions a day.

DA MP James Selfe said: "If Selebi has indeed made a miraculous recovery from his illness or has not been adhering to all his parole conditions, the decision to release him could potentially be reviewed."

Freedom Front Plus spokesman Pieter Groenewald said Selebi's "shopping spree" made a mockery of the justice system.

"Medical parole is being used as a political instrument to get loyal ANC supporters out of jail."

Groenewald said it was clear Selebi was leading a life of luxury while owing the state R17.4-million in legal fees.

Police Ministry spokesman Zweli Mnisi said lawyers for the police and Selebi were in negotiations over payment of his legal fees.

The chief deputy commissioner of the Correctional Services Department, Teboho Mokoena, stressed that Selebi had not violated his parole conditions: "Between 10am and 5pm on Sunday he is allowed to leave home . the picture shows Selebi was outside his home within this time frame."

Mokoena said that, as with any other medical parolee, even if Selebi's condition improved once he had been released, the department had no legal basis to force him to be incarcerated again.

"The department can act only where Selebi has broken his parole conditions. From the day of his release there has never been a parole violation."

Selebi spent most of the 229 days of his 15-year fraud sentence in public and prison hospitals battling diabetes, renal failure and hypertension.

Correctional Services Minister Sbu Ndebele said at the time his department had limited capacity to provide "palliative care". This meant there was no hope for Selebi's recovery and he needed to be kept comfortable until his death.

Nephrologist Dr Trevor Gerntholtz said Selebi's kidneys were probably destroyed by years of diabetes and would never recover, and that seeing Selebi up and about was normal.

"It shows that with dialysis you can live a nearly normal life and go shopping and enjoy yourself. It shows the value of dialysis."

But security specialist Paul O'Sullivan said: "One needs to ask what about all the other people in prison who are dying who cannot go home. Selebi had been granted a get-out-of-jail-free card. He has been neutralised and South Africa saved from him, but he has not faced justice properly."