Suspended KZN Hawks head Johan Booysen is said to have played a “startlingly inappropriate and abhorrent” role in the alleged Cato Manor “death squad.”
|||Durban - The role that suspended KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Johan Booysen is said to have played in the alleged Cato Manor “death squad” is “startlingly inappropriate and abhorrent”, said prosecutions boss Nomgcobo Jiba.
This was in replying court papers to Booysen’s application to the Durban High Court for an order to set aside the decision to prosecute him on charges of murder, assault, racketeering and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.
Jiba, the acting national director of public prosecutions, recently filed her replying affidavit and said they were still satisfied that there was a case against Booysen and his 27 co-accused, the members of the now disbanded Cato Manor organised crime unit.
Booysen and his accused were arrested last year and now face charges on about 116 counts, including 28 of murder. The unit has been accused of operating a death squad under Booysen’s command.
In Booysen’s court application in May, he said he believed he had become a target after an investigation under his watch into certain procurement irregularities revealed possible corruption between police officers and a Durban businessman.
He said the investigation was sufficiently sensitive to cause him to tread on the toes of higher ranking individuals and felt that there were people who would prefer to sideline him for as long as possible to prevent him from doing his job.
Booysen said he was falsely implicated and had questioned why the unit commander of the SAPS organised crime unit, Colonel Rajen Aiyer, had not been arrested. He also accused Jiba of failing to comply with policy directives when she authorised his prosecution.
He has also made an application for the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision to prosecute to be declared inconsistent with the constitution and invalid.
In response, Jiba called for Booysen’s application to be dismissed as it was made before the KwaZulu-Natal High Court. She argued that it should have been made within the jurisdiction of the North Gauteng High Court, as most of the respondents were based in Pretoria and Johannesburg.
Jiba argued that there was prima facie evidence that an offence had been committed.
She said in court papers that from January 2007 to March 2010, Booysen was a provincial commander in charge of KZN Organised Crime and was thereafter appointed head of the Hawks in KZN.
“During May 2008 to September 2011, members of the SAPS under (Booysen’s) command killed members of the KwaMaphumulo Taxi Association, in conflict with the Stanger Taxi Association, as well as ordinary civilians and or criminal gangs suspected of being involved in ATM bombings,” read Jiba’s affidavit.
“The information before me suggested that these members of the SAPS, would in most of the killings place a firearm next to the deceased person to create the impression that she or he was armed and had attacked the police by shooting at them or endangering their (police) lives.”
Jiba said the information under oath placed before her also indicated that Booysen knew or ought to have known that his subordinates were killing suspects instead of arresting them.
Booysen said he was busy with his legal counsel, Carl van der Merwe, compiling replying papers.
noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za
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