Zumas silent on cop death plot claims

THE Zuma family has closed ranks in the wake of stunning claims by retired KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Johan Booysen that the former president and other key ANC figures were plotting to kill him.

The secret scheme‚ alleged to have been hatched during a clandestine meeting in a housing settlement near Durban‚ was thrust into sharp focus by DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard during the police budget debate on Tuesday.

“So great is the fear of General Booysen that a hit has allegedly been taken out on him‚” she said.

“There is confirmation from three independent and reliable sources that MK [Umkhonto weSizwe] veterans from Cornubia near Phoenix in KwaZulu-Natal have been taken on to do the job after meetings with none other than Jacob Zuma‚ Super Zuma and Sihle Zikalala‚” she said.

“Dudu Myeni is also implicated after meetings with the vets. Indeed‚ if General Booysen so much as stubs his toe‚ we’ll know where to look.

“I have had death threats over the years and I know that getting it out in the open tends to diminish the threat, because once these conspirators realise you know what they’re plotting and that you’re not scared to take them on – they back off.

“I am the last person who will leave someone under threat. Imagine I knew [about these threats] and [Booysen] had been killed and I had done nothing.”

The alleged conspirators have all strenuously denied the allegations involving the veteran policeman‚ who negotiated an early retirement package last year.

He has since taken up a corporate role in the private security sector.

The former president‚ accused of being at the centre of the assassination plot‚ is the only player to stay mum‚ an indication that he has gone to ground.

Booysen’s proximity to Zuma as a police investigator has before been a point of contention‚ with Zuma’s son Edward swept up in a multimillion-rand corruption probe.

In 2011, Edward is alleged to have urged Booysen‚ while he was still head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal‚ to release the state’s grip on millions paid to controversial businessman Thoshan Panday.

Booysen has held that Zuma and Panday were in business together‚ and that Edward had come to his office at police headquarters to try to influence his corruption investigation into Panday. – TimesLIVE