Former KZN Hawks boss, Johan Booysen. (Gallo/Netwerk24/Felix Dlangamandla)
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is taking disciplinary action against senior prosecutors who allegedly started the spurious prosecution of the so-called Cato Manor “death squad” and former Hawks head Johan Booysen.
Three prosecutors — Anthony Mosing, Gladstone Maema and Raymond Mathenjwa — are facing disciplinary action, and the Investigating Directorate is pursuing the matter.
It is unclear what the exact basis of the disciplinary action against the three is, although it may be related to the serious allegations raised against them during the Zondo commission.
Advocates Andrew Chauke, Torie Pretorius, Molatlhwa Mashuga, George Baloyi and Marshall Mokgatle were also among those named during the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture.
NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga declined to respond to questions regarding the hearings.
“Disciplinary processes are by their nature internal processes of which we are not at liberty to discuss or comment on in the media,” Mhaga said.
Asked for comment on the prosecutors facing disciplinary action, Booysen said: “I am pleased to learn that action is now taken against the errant prosecutors who facilitated state capture. These prosecutors were constrained to uphold the oath of their office, but elected to undermine the independence of the NPA. It is time for the NPA to rid itself of these rogue prosecutors,” Booysen said.
Maema declined to comment on the details of the disciplinary hearing, saying that it was an “internal HR matter”.
“All I said to the NPA is there are discussions of issues emanating from 2021 and I said ‘well, it has been argued around in the media by lots of people’,” Maema said. “My accusers are the ones who breached the law and not myself. I did my job to the best of my ability.”
Asked about the details of the allegations, he said he could not comment on matters that had come into his knowledge during the course of his duties in terms of section 41 (6) of the NPA Ac.
Mosing said the “matter of the Zondo commission and what transpired there is a matter of public knowledge. You should consult the Zondo report regarding the so-called allegations against me. As for an internal disciplinary hearing, that is an internal matter and I am not at liberty to comment thereon.”
Mathenjwa had not responded to questions sent in an email by the time of publication.
During his testimony before the commission, Booysen accused Mosing, Maema and Mathenjwa of lying under oath and launching a spurious prosecution against him and 17 policemen from the Cato Manor Special Crimes Unit, on the instruction of the then deputy director of public prosecutions, Nomgcobo Jiba.
President Cyril Ramaphosa fired Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi, the former head of the specialised commercial crime unit, on the recommendation of the earlier Mokgoro inquiry, during which Booysen had also testified against them. In his dismissal letters, Ramaphosa said that among the other serious transgressions uncovered during the inquiry, both had lied.
Maema led the prosecution against Booysen and the policemen in 2012 during which they were arrested and set to face 116 charges, including murder and housebreaking. Booysen was also accused of racketeering and running the Cato Manor unit as a “criminal enterprise” hit squad allegedly to kill taxi competitors of then police commissioner Bheki Cele.
The charges against Booysen were withdrawn seven years later after a panel appointed by the national director of public prosecutions, Shamila Batohi, concluded in mid-2019 that Abrahams, Jiba, Noko and Maema had lied and conspired to charge him and his colleagues.
Booysen is now in the process of suing the state in the Durban high court for R7.6 million in damages for wrongful arrest.
Booysen told the Zondo commission that “Maema has been the ‘clean-up’ and ‘go-to-person’ whenever the political elite and or their associates have to be protected from prosecutions.”
He told the commision that Maema had prosecuted him because he was investigating the R60 million Fifa World Cup police accommodation corruption case against Thoshan Panday, in whose business former president Jacon Zuma’s son, Edward Zuma, apparently had a stake.
Booysen was also investigating high profile cases against corrupt police officials.
He said former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and Panday were among those who benefited from political manipulation at the NPA. Panday is now facing fraud and corruption charges related to the R60 million deal and is expected to appear in the Durban high court on 25 August.
Booysen said Maema had prepared a memorandum to prosecute him on charges of racketeering.
“This particular memorandum was permeated with misrepresentations, there were serious omissions, most importantly it contains falsehoods. Advocate Maema blatantly lies in the prosecution memorandums and I can prove it. Maema was also the prosecutor in the aborted so-called ‘Rendition’ saga when members from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate [Ipid] including the executive director, [Robert] McBride, were prosecuted for obstructing the course of justice.
“They were prosecuted because they updated a report to the minister of police, Nathi
Nhleko, which evidently did not fit in with Nhleko’s plans to get rid of [Anwar] Dramat who was the head of the Hawks at the time,” Booysen told the commission.
The charges against Dramat and McBride were withdrawn in 2016.
Dramat claimed at the time that the charges were political retribution for his bid to have police investigate Zuma over the upgrades to his Nkandla home.
Booysen also accused Mosing and Mrwebi of facilitating the withdrawal of racketeering charges against two politicians, Peggy Nkoyeni and Mike Mabuyakhulu, in what came to be known as the “Three Amigos” case involving businessman Gaston Savoi, relating to the corrupt acquisition of water purifying plants for hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal.
“It is always the same protagonists within law enforcement and the National Prosecuting Authority, who are seized with protecting certain politically connected individuals from facing justice and then to investigate and persecute those who investigate those politicians and their associates. These law enforcement officials, namely [Riah] Phiyega, [Berning] Ntlemeza, [Nyameka] Xaba, [Pharasa] Ncube and Ngobeni, were all part of a captured faction together with prosecutors Jiba, Mrwebi, [Sean] Abrahams, Maema, Noko, Mosing, [Torie] Pretorius, [Marshall] Mokgathle, [Dawood] Adams, Mathenjwa and [Simphiwe] JJ Mlotshwa,” he told the commission.
“In my view, they were all complicit in actively or tacitly promoting state capture. This culminated in institutions like the NPA, Hawks and SAPS [South African Police Service] being subverted to ensure the shielding of certain individuals from criminal sanction.”
He submitted to the commision that the prosecutors themselves had violated the Prevention of Organised Crime Act “in that they either participated or managed the affairs of a criminal enterprise [racketeering] or for obstructing the course of justice”.
“It is a dark irony that many of the individuals they sought to protect such as former president Zuma, Mabuyakhulu and Nkoyeni faced racketeering charges, while the captured factions at the NPA now seek to prosecute the investigators for racketeering.”
Tebogo Mathibedi SC, who represented the prosecutors, told the commision that they had performed their duties without fear, favour or prejudice.
“Whichever decision they took to prosecute or decline to prosecute was legally justified. The allegations levelled against the implicated officials are malicious; they are unfounded [and] there is no merit.”