Testimony at the Khampepe inquiry into delayed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) prosecutions indicates that former national police chief Jackie Selebi was set up by old-guard security police.

Anton Ackermann, key witness in the probe into delayed apartheid era atrocity prosecutions, testified on Thursday to the Khampepe inquiry that former national police chief Jackie Selebi had been convinced that the advocate had "a compelling case" against former president Thabo Mbeki, which had not been true.

"There was no case against the president or any other prominent ANC members who had been refused amnesty," Ackermann emphatically informed commissioners.

It appears from the evidence presented on Thursday that the narrative, that first circulated in the early 2000s, that Ackermann - as head of the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU) in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) - was gunning for 37 ANC senior leaders, had been concocted by former security police members.

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Selebi gave it legs

How the alleged conspiracy to arrest ANC leaders gained legs through Selebi was also set out to the panel.

The story of the potential charging of Mbeki was first brought to life by Jan Wagenaar, lawyer for implicated apartheid-era generals, and was snapped up immediately by the conspiratorially minded Selebi. This was a decision which set the dominoes in place for decades-long delays in prosecutions for Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) human rights abuse cases....