Booyse on latest charges: ‘You do the maths’
Suspended Hawks boss Johan Booysen has appeared on the same charges which were thrown out of the same court two years ago.
|||Durban - “You do the maths.”
That was the comment from suspended Hawks boss, Johan Booysen, on Friday after his appearance in the Durban High Court, on the same charges which were thrown out of the same court two years ago.
Booysen appeared with 27 Hawks members in what has been dubbed the “Cato Manor Death Squad” case, following a surprise announcement by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) earlier in the week that he was to be re-charged.
Once the hearing was over, Booysen spoke about the latest decision to charge him and his being arrested for the same charges which had previously been dismissed.
“The state prosecutor was clear that the witness list is the same and I have spoken to the investigating officer who has confirmed the case is based on the same evidence.
“There is no racketeering by any stretch of the imagination. The guys are confident and I am confident,” said Booysen.
When asked why the NPA would make the decision to charge him again, Booysen said he would like to tell the public “you do the maths”.
On Wednesday, the NPA confirmed the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) advocate Shaun Abrahams had issued new certificates authorising the prosecution of Booysen and members of the former Cato Manor unit.
The case against Booysen had been thrown out of court in 2014.
After the hearing yesterday, when asked why the NPA was going ahead with a case when the same charges had previously been dismissed in court, the NPA spokesperson, Luvuyo Mfaku, said they “do not comment on issues relating to evidential material outside the court arena”.
He said that advocate Abrahams had “applied his mind in a judicious manner to the evidence presented to him and decided that there are reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution.
“Hence he authorised the prosecution of the accused on racketeering charges in terms of section 2 (4) of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act,” said Mfaku.
The indictment contains a list of charges, including murder, racketeering and theft against 30 Hawks members in total, which includes two members Neville Eva and Vincent Auerbach who have died since the case first started.
The indictment says both members are deceased.
A large media contingent gathered at the high court in Durban yesterday morning to hear that Booysen had been taken into custody and was waiting in the cells prior to his appearance.
He was officially recharged at the Durban Central police station and as he walked up the stairs from the cells into the courtroom, he looked relaxed and confident as he joined the other 25 suspended Hawks members in the dock.
Once Judge Shyam Gyanda was seated and the formalities of the reissuing of charges presented by the State had been completed, defence attorney, Carl van der Merwe asked if the indictment remained the same, with the exception that Booysen had been added as accused number one.
Van der Merwe also asked if all the statements had been disclosed and whether the State had any outstanding evidence or whether any new witnesses would be brought.
“Everything admissible to evidence has been disclosed to the defence,” said state prosecutor advocate Raymond Mathenjwa, while he also confirmed there would be “no more witnesses at present”.
The defence attorney told the judge they would be challenging the decision to prosecute Booysen and his co-accused on the same charges that had been thrown out of court in 2014 by high court Judge Trevor Gorven, who condemned former acting NDPP Nomgcobo Jiba’s decision to go ahead with prosecution, saying the charges did not meet minimum requirements.
In handing down his decision, Gorven wrote: “Even accepting the least stringent test for rationality imaginable, the decision of the NDPP does not pass muster… The impugned decisions were arbitrary, offend the principle of legality and the rule of law and were unconstitutional.”
The next hearing has been set for April 1 and Judge Gyanda granted bail of R5 000 for Booysen, with the condition he hand over his passport and not interfere with witnesses.
Abrahams’s decision to charge Booysen follows a recent high court decision to overturn Booysen’s suspension. The suspension was over allegations by newly-appointed Hawks boss Major-General Berning Ntlemeza that Booysen committed fraud to the tune of R15 000.
In that case, Judge Anton van Zyl said: “There is not even prima facie evidence such fraud had been committed, or, if it had, that the applicant is implicated.”
Earlier this year, Van Zyl dismissed Ntlemeza’s application to appeal and Ntlemeza is now petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal on this matter. All the men are out on bail of R5 000 each.
Independent on Saturday