I was always confident there was no case - Johan Booysen reacts to NPA dropping charges
9 July 2019
Former Hawks General Johan Booysen says he has always known - from the day that charges were brought against him - that justice would prevail.
Booysen was reacting to the decision by National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi to withdraw the racketeering charges against him and several current and former Hawks officers.
He said, while he had taken the matter on review previously when former National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Nomgcobo Jiba decided to prosecute him, the courts had ruled in his favour.
Booysen told News24 that, despite the court ruling in his favour, former NPA head Shaun Abrahams had also authorised his prosecution, but despite all of that, he was confident that there was no case against him.
'Instigation by political elements'
The two former NPA heads had decided to prosecute the officers for the contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, the NPA said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The High Court in Durban in 2012 already found that there was no evidence against me, so for Abrahams to have once again prosecuted me, despite the court finding, I knew he was wrong, and he was acting on instigation by political elements," Booysen told News24.
'There is no evidence against me'
He added that, based on his experience as a police officer for almost 40 years, he knew that there was no criminal case against him.
"I think I know criminal cases better than the prosecutor in this matter, advocate [Sello] Maema, does. And there is absolutely no evidence against me.
Fabricated evidence
"If there was evidence against me, I would have said maybe they can prosecute and I would have to go prove my innocence in court. The fact of the matter is, there is no evidence against me linking me to the commission of a crime," Booysen said.
He added that the prosecutors, advocates Sello Maema and Moipone Noko, were relying on "fabricated" evidence that did not exist.
Noko instituted charges against Booysen related to the so-called Cato Manor death squad.
She also withdrew charges against businessman Thoshan Panday (a business partner of Jacob Zuma's son, Edward) and Colonel Navin Madhoe, who Booysen says attempted to bribe him with R2m to scupper a corruption investigation, News24 previously reported.
Maema formed part of the State's prosecution team in the Cato Manor case.
Booysen said he had now laid charges of fraud with the Hawks against both Maema and Noko for "misrepresenting evidence" to get him prosecuted.
