Jean-Jacques Cornish

Post funeral row over Jackie Selebi continues

The national prosecution authority in South Africa insists there was nothing malicious in bringing to book former police commissioner Jackie Selibi.

The former diplomat, who was jailed for corruption in…. died last month while on medical parole.

Jackie Selebi was the point man as ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva on South Africa’s scrapping its nuclear capacity.

He came home to head up the country’s foreign affairs department before being made commissioner of police. In that role he became the rotating head of Interpol.

However, Selebi’s downfall came when he was found guilty of having a corrupt relationship with mobster Glen Agliotti.

Selebi’s funeral last weekend attracted comments from top ANC officials that Selebi was, in fact, engaged in a clandestine investigation of Agliotti.

A statement read out from former president Thabo Mbeki that the full truth of Selebi’s conviction has yet to emerge.

The protecting authority insists it had a bona fide case against the former police commissioner.

Independent investigator….calls claims of Selebi’s innocence poppycock and maintains he produced detailed evidence of Selebi corruption and points out that Selebi’s conviction was upheld by the appeal court.

Enquire about availability for radio, podcasts, reporting or opinion pieces.

Jean-Jacques Cornish is a journalist and broadcaster who has been involved in the media all his adult life.

Starting as a reporter on his hometown newspaper, he moved briefly to then Rhodesia before returning to South Africa to become a parliamentary correspondent with the South African Press Association. He was sent to London as Sapa’s London editor and also served as special correspondent to the United Nations. He joined the then Argus group in London as political correspondent.

Returning to South Africa after 12 years abroad, he was assistant editor on the Pretoria News for a decade before becoming editor of the Star and SA Times for five years.

Since 1999 he’s been an independent journalist writing and broadcasting – mainly about Africa – for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape
Talk, Radio France International, PressTV, Radio Live New Zealand, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, the BBC, Agence France Press,
Business in Africa, Leadership, India Today, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Institute for Security Studies.

He has hosted current affairs talk shows on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He appears as an African affairs pundit on SABC Africa and CNBC Africa.
He lectured in contemporary studies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria.

He speaks on African affairs to corporate and other audiences.
He has been officially invited as a journalist to more than 30 countries. He was the winner of the 2007 SADC award for radio journalism.

He’s been a member of the EISA team observing elections in Somaliland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Tunsiai.

In October 2009 he headed a group of 39 African journalists to the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

In January 2010 he joined a rescue and paramedical team to earthquake struck Haiti.

He is immediate past president of the Alliance Francaise of Pretoria.

Jean-Jacques is a director of Giant Media. The company was given access to Nelson Mandela in his retirement years until 2009.
He is co-producer of the hour-long documentary Mandela at 90 that was broadcast on BBC in January 2009.