Cato Manor cops back on the beat

FORMER Cato Manor crime busters are back at work and getting results.

Yesterday, former KwaZulu-Natal Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations head Johan Booysen said several of his former officers returned to the Durban Organised Crime Unit, while others were redeployed to Joburg and Cape Town.

“Since they have been back, they have made a number of breakthroughs and have been doing some sterling work,” Booysen said yesterday.

His team of 26 detectives, labelled the “Cato Manor Death Squad” by a mainstream weekend newspaper, had experienced officers arrested in 2012 on 116 charges, which included murder.

Booysen told Independent Media former acting national director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba, North West police commissioner Jan Mabula, prosecutor Sello Maema and NPA KwaZulu-Natal head Moipone Noko “have blood on their hands”.

“My guys were forced to sit at home because of the nefariousness of Jiba, Mabula and others. It was for that reason a number of cases which Cato Manor were dealing with at the time and were in court, were compromised and criminals walked free.

“Not only that, but in the years these officers were sitting at home twiddling their thumbs, cases could have been solved,” he said.

In a Facebook post, Booysen congratulated his former officer, Jeremy Marten, noting the “wasted talent” in crime fighting during the years his detectives were suspended.

He said during a private trip to Fish Hoek three weeks ago, a number of police officers from that station commented on Marten’s commitment to his work.

The False Bay Echo reported this week on Marten’s successful cold case investigation which solved the brutal house robbery involving Fish Hoek resident Norah Coram in 1985.