Villain or hero? Clarity is needed on why a South African police general is being prosecuted
A top-ranking officer in South Africa's Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), Major-General Johan Booysen, was arrested on 22 August 2012 on a number of charges, including murder and racketeering. What makes this case particularly shocking is that Booysen was hailed as a hero in 2011 for refusing to accept a R1,3 million bribe from businessman Thoshan Panday. Panday and South African Police Service (SAPS) Colonel Navin Madhoe were being investigated for alleged fraud involving R60 million in a police accommodation tender scam.
Events had been set in motion earlier in June 2012 when 18 members of the now disbanded Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit of the DPCI (or ‘the Hawks', as it is more commonly known) were arrested on charges including murder, attempted murder, theft, illegal possession of firearms and defeating the ends of justice. This was one of a number of units that ultimately reported to Booysen, the provincial head of the DPCI in KwaZulu-Natal.
This case is often used as an example of how the SAPS has become riddled with rogue elements - a recent audit has identified 1 448 serving police officials who have criminal convictions, a majority of which are for serious crimes. However, it seems to be a particularly complex case. Interestingly, the media has taken opposing views on the matter.
On the one side are those who depict Booysen as the head of a police ‘hit squad', as alleged in a Sunday Times exposé of 11 December 2011, titled ‘Shoot to kill: inside a South African police death squad'. According to this report, the Cato Manor unit in Durban is allegedly responsible for 28 murders, ‘some in retaliation for suspected cop killings and others related to ongoing taxi wars'. The report included photographs of those allegedly executed by the police unit, and statements from witnesses. As a result of this exposé, the unit was shut down and its members arrested, along with Booysen.
On the other side are publications such as the Sunday Tribune and Noseweek, which suggest that the charges against Booysen are primarily aimed at removing him from the Hawks to prevent him from investigating senior police officials and politically connected businessmen allegedly involved in high-level corruption. The Sunday Tribune published transcripts of secretly recorded discussions that it alleges reveal a plot to remove Booysen from the Hawks and close down the Cato Manor unit, prior to the Sunday Timesexposé. The alleged plotter is Colonel Rajen Aiyer, who was the direct commander of the Cato Manor unit for most of the period during which the alleged atrocities were committed.
Booysen had earlier charged Aiyer in terms of the SAPS' disciplinary code for committing an undisclosed act of dishonesty. After pleading guilty at the disciplinary hearing he was transferred to the SAPS' provincial head office in Durban. He is also the suspected source of most of the evidence used in the Sunday Times exposé. Questions have been asked as to why he was not arrested along with the rest of the unit, given that he was their direct commander at the time in question.
According to Noseweek, the Sunday Times relied almost totally on information it had received from Panday and Madhoe, both of whom have a direct interest in removing Booysen given that he had initiated the criminal investigation into their alleged corrupt activities in March 2010.
Around the middle of 2011, Madhoe apparently approached Booysen and showed him evidence of the Cato Manor unit's alleged murderous activities. He reportedly suggested that this information would be released to the media unless Booysen found a way to stop the fraud case against them. Apparently Booysen declined to do this, forcing Madhoe and Panday to change tactics. In August 2011, Madhoe again approached Booysen, this time offering him a bribe of R2 million. Booysen had both suspects arrested on an additional charge of corruption when they handed over part of the money.
However, in a Sunday Times article titled ‘Cop says bribe charge is bid to shut him up over KZN hit squads', published in December 2011, Madhoe claimed that Booysen was lying about the bribe and that he (Madhoe) was being victimised for wanting to ‘blow the whistle on the alleged police hit squad operating in KwaZulu-Natal'.
This case appears particularly thorny given Panday's powerful friends - he is a business associate of Edward Zuma, son of President Jacob Zuma, and a close friend of the SAPS' Provincial Commissioner in KwaZulu-Natal, Lt-Gen. Mmamonnye Ngobeni. It has emerged that Edward Zuma had attempted to exert pressure on Booysen to release R15 million that had been frozen as part of the fraud investigation. Edward Zuma said that this money in fact belonged to him as he had loaned it to Panday. Ngobeni was suspended after she became a suspect in the R60 million fraud case, along with Panday and Madhoe. The case against her was eventually withdrawn due to insufficient evidence and she was reinstated.
The matter is complicated further by the recent claims surrounding the lead investigator into the Cato Manor ‘death squad' allegations, Maj.-Gen. Ntebo Mabula. According to the City Press of 28 July 2013, Mabula himself is a suspect in a murder case involving the death of a suspect in 2006. According to the article, Mabula and Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba, the current acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), were involved in the failed prosecution of advocate Gerrie Nel, the state prosecutor in the Jackie Selebi case.
Following the Hawks' Hollywood-style arrest of Booysen and members of the Cato Manor unit, it emerged from a report in theCity Press on 16 June 2013 that the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) never intended to arrest Booysen ‘as there was no case against him'.He subsequently launched a court application to challenge the basis on which he had been arrested and charged. According to The Mercury on 16 July 2013, of the four statements that Jiba apparently relied on for her decision, one was unsigned, one was made after she had authorised the prosecution, and one was made by a man who has since died. This raises questions as to whether the decision to prosecute was based solely on evidence and the law, or whether there were political dynamics at play influencing senior NPA decision-makers.
It is in the interest of justice that it is clearly established whether Booysen is a rogue policeman leading a bunch of vigilantes, whether he is being persecuted for tackling corruption at the highest levels, or whether the truth lies somewhere in-between. It is for this reason that agencies such as the Hawks and the NPA need to be completely independent and honest. Unfortunately, given the undue influence of politicians on their work and the questionable decisions made by senior NPA officials, the public and media have reason to be concerned.
Johan Burger is senior researcher, Governance, Crime and Justice Division, ISS Pretoria. This article first appeared in ISS This Week, the weekly online newsletter of the Institute for Security Studies.
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