The ‘untouchable’ Panday
Their association could explain the devastation of South Africa’s criminal justice system
Explosive new evidence suggests one man and his relationship with the Zuma family are central to the havoc in the criminal justice system. A batch of highly sensitive documents obtained by amaBhungane, combined with other information, could explain why a flashy Durban businessperson named Thoshan Panday appears untouchable.
The documents suggest t hat attempts to investigate Panday prompted the departure of Hawks boss Anwa Dramat and the national director of public prosecutions (NDPP), Mxolisi Nxasana, as well as the suspension of Robert McBride, the head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), and Johan Booysen, the embattled commander of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal.
The evidence shows that police recordings of Panday’s conversations are at the centre of battles within and between the Hawks, the IPID and the police.
One crucial document supports claims by police sources that there is extreme sensitivity over Panday’s intercepted conversations with, and about, the Zuma family, including the president himself.
The saga began in August 2010 when Panday’s home, office and the Durban police headquarters were raided as part of a Hawks investigation of an alleged scheme to defraud the South African Police Service (SAPS) by inflating charges for police accommodation during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
He was arrested in 2011 after a sting operation implicated him and an alleged co-conspirator, the SAPS procurement manager, Colonel Navin Madhoe, in efforts to bribe Booysen, allegedly in a bid to make the fraud investigation go away.
In February 2013, bribery charges were mysteriously withdrawn after Panday complained to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the inspector general of intelligence about the alleged illegal interception of his communications. Advocate Moipone Noko, a protégé of the then acting NDPP, Nomgcobo Jiba, took the decision.
Since then, there has been speculation that their content, rather than their legality, was the real reason for the dropping of charges.
Now a senior official who has had access to the material has told amaBhungane that the conversations are replete with Panday’s boasts about his relationship with the Zuma family and, specifically, that he claimed to have paid towards “houses at Nkandla” and had contributed “one bar or two bar”— one or two million rands — to the Jacob Zuma Foundation.
The official also claimed that the president himself had been in direct contact with Panday.
AmaBhungane’s source described Panday as a braggart, and emphasised that because he claimed something did not make it true. But the allegations may partly explain the sustained way in which Panday appears to have been protected.
He maintains the recordings were either illegally obtained or do not exist, but he does not deny the claims.
Last week he laughed when the “one bar or two bar” quote was read out to him and later told amaBhungane by email: “I am a businessman and I take my social responsibility seriously. My company gives donations to various charities and organisations. Insofar as the nature of my relationship with my friends is concerned, this is private.”
Zuma’s spokesperson, Bongani Majola, did not respond to questions. His legal adviser, Michael Hulley, said in a text message: “In truth don’t think a comment warranted, certainly not from any professional position I occupy.”
The foundation referred questions to its chairperson, Dudu Myeni, who did not respond either.
Also this week, amaBhungane obtained copies of explosive and increasingly desperate reports written by the man responsible for the interceptions to his superiors, providing circumstantial backing for some of the claims.
In a memorandum dated October 6 2014, crime intelligence veteran Colonel Brian Padayachee wrote: “The intercepts also revealed very sensitive information implicating high profile individuals who has [sic] and or had a general corrupt relationship with Mr Panday. Payments for favours were also evident.
“The contents of which will be revealed DIRECTLY AND PERSONALLY TO THE NATIONAL COMMISSIONER ONLY as it is not related to the current investigation and it is highly sensitive and controversial.”
The memo was copied to the national police commissioner, Riah Phiyega, and Dramat, who was then the Hawks commander.
It also detailed claims that the intercepts and related investigations implicated a number of senior KwaZulu-Natal police officers as “having a corrupt relationship with Mr Panday”. They included the provincial commissioner, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, and her husband, Major General Lucas Ngobeni.
A case was opened against Ngobeni in 2011 after it emerged that Panday had paid for a surprise birthday party for her husband, but Ngobeni has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and pointed to a decision by the NPA declining to prosecute.
In his memo, Padayachee wrote: “It has to be emphasised that the investigation has been fraught with intimidation, threats and interference from the outset to date.
‘Due to the sensitive nature of the information revealed during the above-mentioned investigation, several attempts have been made to bring the contents thereof to the personal attention of the national commissioner and divisional commissioner: crime intelligence for urgent intervention and guidance.”
Instead of support, Padayachee received a notice of intention to suspend him, based on the same allegations made by Panday in 2013 of his communications being illegally intercepted, and his claims that the recordings were used to try to pressure him to become a witness against the provincial commissioner.
Padayachee wrote again to Phiyega and Dramat complaining that the moves against him were “directly linked” to the investigation and his report exposing senior officers involved in corruption.
When he still received no response, Padayachee wrote again on October 19 last year, this time attaching an affidavit setting out the allegations against Panday and senior police officers, and explaining the genesis of the interception operations, which went back to the 2010 investigation of Panday’s R60-million police accommodation contract.
Citing his 33 years of “utmost loyalty and diligence”, Padayachee said: “I sought your guidance and assistance with this investigation, but instead departmental action has been initiated against me.”
Although it seemed to Padayachee no one was listening, other evidence obtained by amaBhungane suggests his reports, among others, set off seismic shifts in the criminal justice system.
These created unlikely allies: Booysen, the hard-nosed white career cop; McBride, the Wentworth wide boy turned Umkhonto weSizwe soldier, who is still reviled in parts of the white community for the 1986 Magoo’s Bar bombing, and now turned stubborn watchman over police abuse; Dramat, the loyal, quiet Cape activist turned corruptionbuster; and Nxasana, the small-time Durban lawyer elevated to the pinnacle of the prosecution service.
The first attempt to suspend Booysen was in February 2012, following a December 2011 Sunday Times splash, headlined “Shoot to kill: Inside a South African police hit squad”.
The news report raised serious questions about the legality of many shoot-outs between known gangsters and members of the Cato Manor Serious and Violent Crime Unit, which was one of the Hawks clusters that fell under Booysen.
Although the questions were legitimate, there were also allegations that the scandal was deliberately exposed by police sources to create a pretext for action against Booysen.
Now Padayachee adds to that suspicion.
His affidavit stated: “The intercepts further revealed exactly how Mr Panday was assisted by several police officials in obtaining and accumulating crime scene photographs to conspire against Maj-Gen Booysen. These very photographs were subsequently leaked to the media and published in the Sunday Times, which eventually led to the criminal charges and suspension of Maj-Gen Booysen.”
In August 2012, Booysen and more than a dozen members of the Cato Manor unit were arrested. Booysen could not be linked directly to any of the killings, but he was charged under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act for being part of a “criminal enterprise” .
By law, such charges have to be approved personally by the national