In Friday's court papers, the prosecuting authority said the charges related to Selebi's "generally corrupt relationship" with Glen Agliotti, a convicted drug trafficker who is accused of the 2005 murder of a mining magnate, Brett Kebble.
Agliotti gave Selebi cash handouts when he was short of cash "as and when he requested," and bought clothes for him and his family and even gave him 30,000 rands (US$4,400) to fund a dinner in Paris when he was elected president of Interpol in 2004. The payments totaled at least 1.2 million rands between 2000-2005, the prosecuting authority said.
The prosecuting authority accused Selebi of defeating the administration of justice by turning a blind eye to Agliotti's involvement in transporting large quantities of illegal drugs. He also informed his friend that British intelligence authorities were investigating him, the prosecuting authority said.
The prosecuting authority is fighting desperately for the survival of its elite crime-busting unit known as the Scorpions. Last month's ANC congress, which elected Zuma as party president despite corruption charges, passed a resolution that the unit should be dissolved as quickly as possible. Anger that prosecutors filed new charges against Zuma within a week of his election is likely to move the scrapping of the Scorpions high up the political agenda.
Gastrow said the Scorpions hit problems once they closed in on South Africa's political and business elite, and that power struggles in South Africa were sending out worrying signals internationally.
"There are some anxious analysts out there watching this strange squabble game being played out in a society which has to be very careful it doesn't lose its balance," Gastrow said.
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