Cato Manor killing spree spreads north
FRIKKIE Greyling* was watching TV at his home in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, when he heard seven shots fired rapidly from the same gun in the street outside. His wife phoned the police. “I was in the house with my kids. I heard people talking outside,” he says in a statement on the incident in 2008.
He went to investigate. Two senior Cato Manor detectives stood near an unmarked gold Toyota double cab. A man was slumped in a white Chevrolet Aveo, barely alive. The policemen told Greyling the wounded man was a suspect in ATM bombings in KwaZuluNatal, and ordered him to leave the crime scene. The detectives said they had wounded the suspect after he pointed a gun at them when they tried to pull his car over.
An hour later the suspect was shot dead by a private detective at the scene after he got out of the car and tried to grab a gun. A police memo says it was possible that “the deceased was killed execution-style” and a ballistics report would confirm it.
This is one of four cases cited in a memo drawn up in July this year for a disciplinary case against Major-General Johan Booysen that led to his suspension as KwaZulu-Natal head of the Hawks in September. Booysen was in overall command of the unit, and close to several officers involved in the shootings.
This week, Booysen’s suspension was overturned by the High Court in Durban, which found there was no case against him. The Hawks said it would appeal against the ruling, prompting complaints in some quarters of a political witch-hunt against Booysen.
The memo says Booysen contravened police regulations when he allowed his men to conduct four operations outside his province. Their immediate commander, Colonel Rajen Aiyer, said in sworn statements he wasn’t aware his men had left the province.
These operations led to fatal shootings in Boksburg, Heidelberg, Thokoza and Bryanston in Gauteng, and Rustenburg in North West.
The memo recommends that Booysen be charged for “failing to subject several shooting incidents by members under his command” to a probe. This failure “led to the senseless killing of many victims which could have been prevented had he acted appropriately”.
It cites several incidents of Cato Manor members shooting suspects “without the knowledge of the investigators assigned to investigate the case concerned [and] without warrants or evidence to support the arrest”.
Another ballistics expert also disputed the Cato Manor officers’ version of events.
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko said he was “following up” on the allegations against Booysen. If it was warranted, he would be “held accountable” departmentally and criminally. He declined to be drawn on whether there were plans to re-charge Booysen criminally.
Booysen declined to be interviewed.