Ministers 'dragging feet' in Booysen's R7.6m 'death squad' damages claim

Retired KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Johan Booysen headed to court this week to force the ministers of police and justice to file documents they will rely on in opposing his R7.6m damages claim. 

This is in connection with his arrest and prosecution relating to the discredited Cato Manor death squad allegations.

The ministers have been ordered to file the documents within five days. If they don’t, Booysen can apply to dismiss their defence and for judgment to be granted in his favour.

He filed the summons at the end of 2020 and says he was wrongfully and unlawfully arrested on an invalid warrant of arrest in February 2016.

Booysen was then unlawfully detained at Durban Central police station before he appeared in the Durban high court the next day. He was indicted on six charges, including racketeering, murder, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, and defeating the ends of justice.

He and his 26 co-accused, mostly members of the Cato Manor organised crime unit,  appeared in court several times over three years until, in July 2019, the charges were withdrawn at the behest of then recently appointed National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi. 

Batohi said a panel of prosecutors unanimously concluded, “in respect of the authorisations [for the racketeering charges], that a proper case was not made out on the papers presented”.

The authorisations were signed off by former National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) bosses Nomgcobo Jiba and Shaun Abrahams.

While then acting director of public prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal Elaine Zungu was tasked with going through the dockets in respect of the other 116 charges in the indictment against the other accused, ultimately none were charged.

In his summons, Booysen said he was forced to retire early in 2017 as a result of the “wrongful, malicious and unlawful conduct” by the police, Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) and NPA, and his rights to human dignity, privacy and freedom were infringed.

His claim of R7.6m includes general damages, loss of earnings and loss of pension payments.

In Thursday’s application, which came before Durban high court acting judge Credo Mlaba, Booysen’s attorney Cameron Wilson of Shepstone & Wylie said a notice calling for discovery of the documents was served on the state attorney in March last year “and the pleadings have now closed”.

The judge granted the order, giving the ministers five days to file the documents and any relevant recordings, and ordered they pay the costs of the application.

Wilson told TimesLIVE no-one from the state attorney’s office had placed themselves on record in the matter and, on Thursday, there was no appearance by any legal representative.

“They have not responded to this matter and all attempts to call them to a pretrial conference are ignored. This has dragged on for two years and we have no idea who we are dealing with from the state attorney,” said Wilson, adding that the ministers had only filed a plea “denying” the allegations.

Earlier this year, the NPA was joined as a party in the matter, but did not enter an appearance to defend.

In an interview, Booysen said: “The state has been an extremely lethargic, if not downright recalcitrant litigant in this matter.”

He said again taxpayers had to foot the bill for this. “I have taken them to court nine times, winning with costs every time. Then there was my disciplinary inquiry. They used three counsel which cost the taxpayer R1.7m.

“They don’t care. It’s not their money.”

Booysen filed a similar lawsuit in 2015, when the racketeering charge was  withdrawn against him for the first time. This after Durban high court judge Trevor Gorven ruled Jiba had no evidence to authorise the charge. This case lapsed when he was recharged in 2016 under the authority of Jiba’s successor, Abrahams.

In his armoury of evidence will be that Gorven’s ruling was never appealed and then Abrahams signed off on the racketeering charges again, based on the same evidence before Jiba.

In testimony before the state capture inquiry and the Mokgoro commission into Jiba’s fitness to hold office, Booysen said he and members of the unit were “persecuted” by a “cabal” in Pretoria and the North West who were serving their political masters.

He said he, as provincial head of the unit investigating powerful people with high political connections, was the target, while his co-accused were “collateral damage”.

Legal experts have said they believed Booysen had a “winnable claim” against the ministers and the NPA.

Several others accused in the case have also filed damages claims against the state.

TimesLIVE