South Africa’s police chief faces a warrant for his arrest as a bitter struggle at the top of the country’s ruling African National Congress threatens to plunge the country into chaos.

The warrant against Jackie Selebi, who is also head of Interpol, was issued last week, according to SABC, the state broadcaster. Mr Selebi has been accused of links to figures from South Africa’s underworld. Last night he told a local radio station that he had no knowledge of the warrant.

The reported move comes amid a fierce political battle that this week propelled the country’s chief prosecutor into murky circumstances. “There is a full-scale war going on now between the prosecutors and the Justice Ministry,” one political commentator said.

President Mbeki has pledged to root out corruption but has been accused of soft-pedalling on allegations made against his own supporters. Mr Selebi would not have got his job without being one of the early Mbeki backers. In 2004 he was elected to the rotating post of Interpol President.

Mr Selebi, who has been criticised harshly for failing to reduce crime, himself became a target for investigation by the country’s FBI-style Scorpions unit after a business associate was arrested on suspicion of the murder in September 2005 of Bret Kebble, a flamboyant mining magnate who had close links to the ANC. It emerged that Mr Selebi had frequently played golf with the suspect, Glenn Agliotti, a well-known drug lord.

The country’s investigative Mail & Guardian newspaper said that when police seized a 105 million rand (£8 million) consignment of the illicit drug Mandrax in 2002, Mr Selebi was “informed about Glenn Agliotti’s involvement” but continued his friendship. The case against Mr Agliotti subsequently collapsed and other suspects, some of whom had been caught red-handed, were released.

Mr Mbeki on Tuesday suspended Vusi Pikoli, the head of the National Prosecution Authority, on the ostensible grounds that his relationship with Brigitte Mabandla, the Justice Minister, had suffered an “irretrievable breakdown”. However, the dismissal outraged opposition parties and raised fears that it was part of a power struggle within the ANC.

Mr Mbeki, who is in New York attending the UN General Assembly, has promised to set up an inquiry into Mr Pikoli’s conduct.

The Scorpions, who have brought a series of cases against high-level figures, have strongly resisted government attempts to integrate them with the police.

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