South African Police Chief Accused of Joke Bomb Threat

The South African national police commissioner, Jackie Selebi, is embroiled in a row after allegedly telling an airport security man that he had a bomb in his bag.

In a report seen by the Guardian the security officer claims that Mr Selebi made the comment when he arrived at Johannesburg airport two weeks ago en route to Europe.

Members of the public who joke about carrying explosives at the airport are arrested and charged with an offence which can put them in jail for 25 years.

Bennie Edwards said he had been told by the police that the commissioner would be taking a flight and must not be searched. In his report he writes: "I informed the policeman that if the gentleman was in civilian clothes ... I will be obligated to search him. He further informed me that if I search him there will be big problems."

In June the South African civil aviation authority issued an order that uniformed senior police officers could not be searched at airports and that they would be allowed to carry weapons into secure areas for "operational requirements". South African Airways protested that this would, in effect, allow them to carry guns on to planes.

Mr Edwards said that he told Mr Selebi to put his bag on the X-ray machine.

"On giving the bag to [a policeman] to put into the X-ray machine ... he told me that he had a bomb in his bag.

"I informed him not to make that kind of remark. He insisted that he did have a bomb in his bag," he wrote.

The head of security, Thele Moema, was called in and decided not to take the matter further. But the man in overall charge of security at South African airports, Petko Atanassov, has protested at the unusual handling of the case and the failure to carry out a proper investigation.

Mr Selebi has denied making the threat. "Outright lies," his spokeswoman, Sally de Beer, said.

"He didn't even have a bag in his hand when he went to the airport."