Former NPA boss’s bungling lets Cato Manor cop off hook
RACKETEERING and murder charges have been dropped against the suspended boss of the KwaZulu-Natal Hawks, Major-General Johan Booysen, because of bungling by former acting prosecutions head Nomgcobo Jiba.
In a scathing ruling delivered this week, Judge Trevor Gorven listed a litany of errors committed by Jiba that got Booysen off the hook but left the door open for the controversial cop to be charged again.
Booysen was arrested in 2012 with 29 policemen linked to the Cato Manor organised crime unit. He was charged with heading a criminal gang that assassinated taxi bosses for financial gain. Last year, Booysen applied to have the charges against him dropped.
He cited a lack of evidence directly implicating him and claimed they had been trumped up to prevent him from investigating police procurement fraud. Two of the Cato Manor officers have since died.
The criminal trial of the remaining 27 suspects facing 116 charges, including 28 counts of murder, is scheduled to start later this year.
The Sunday Times had previously exposed how the Cato Manor unit, which was under Booysen’s ultimate command, allegedly operated as a hit squad.
Documentary evidence obtained by this newspaper included police memos, sworn statements, ballistics, pathology and crime scene reconstruction reports, supporting detailed information from more than a dozen sources, including witnesses, of extrajudicial killings.
But Gorven found that the documents Jiba relied on to charge Booysen did not provide a rational basis for doing so.
They included a witness statement she had received only after making the decision to prosecute and an unsigned, undated statement from former Cato Manor reservist Ari Danikas. The contents “do not cover the period dealt with in the indictment except for one event which does not relate to Booysen”, said Gorven.
She also failed to explain how key undisclosed documents containing information about informers implicated Booysen.
Gorven concluded that Jiba’s authorisation to charge Booysen was “arbitrary, offended the principle of legality and the rule of law and were unconstitutional”.
However, Booysen failed in his bid to interdict the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) from bringing fresh charges against him. “It is important to note that the above findings do not amount to a finding that Mr Booysen is not guilty of the offences,” said Gorven. “That can only be decided by way of a criminal trial.
“Setting aside the authorisations and decisions to prosecute also does not mean that fresh authorisations cannot be issued or fresh decisions taken to prosecute if there is a rational basis for these decisions.”
NPA spokesman Nathi Mncube declined to comment on whether prosecutors would seek to reinstate charges. “We have noted the judgment. We are studying it and will make a determination of the way forward after consulting with our senior counsel,” he said.
Booysen could not be reached for comment.