National director of public prosecutions Shamila Batohi. (X)
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi on Friday accused national director of public prosecutions Shamila Batohi of failing to investigate allegations of human rights abuses linked to former KwaZulu-Natal head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) Johan Booysen and members of the specialised Cato Manor police unit.
At the Nkabinde inquiry into South Gauteng director of public prosecutions Andrew Chauke’s fitness for office Ngcukaitobi, who is representing him, said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had never inquired into claims that Booysen intimidated a witness.
He said this was despite the NPA receiving information from a police inspector who alleged he had personally observed crimes committed by the Cato Manor unit up to 2008.
Ngcukaitobi read from the inspector’s unsigned statement, which he said had been provided to Batohi together with supporting evidence. He argued that despite the existence of a witness, the NPA took no action.
The Nkabinde panel viewed the footage of a suspect being tortured by four members of the Cato Manor unit. Ngcukaitobi said there had been four attempts to bring the torture footage to Batohi’s attention: publication on YouTube, an email containing the links, and an affidavit delivered to her office.
Batohi testified that she had never seen the video before. She said she had established a panel to investigate human rights abuses by the unit and did not recall receiving the video links.
“There’s nothing untoward about me not seeing those videos because a panel was looking into all of the evidence and this is part of the evidence,” she said.
“It cannot be the case that only today you are aware of the video footage,” Ngcukaitobi said.
“My understanding of what I said is that I had not viewed this video,” Batohi responded.
Ngcukaitobi maintained that the existence of the video had been known to Batohi “for a long time”.
“That is correct. Today I am viewing it for the first time,” she replied.
Established by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Nkabinde inquiry is investigating potential misconduct by Chauke in instituting racketeering charges against Booysen.
According to the police inspector’s account, the Cato Manor unit operated with impunity and was “projected via media as heroes and victims”. He said he could provide “solid evidence” that Booysen had lied in the Cato Manor case. He alleged witnessing torture carried out by the unit and attached video footage in several communications to Batohi.
Ngcukaitobi said the inspector had repeatedly reported criminal patterns involving the Cato Manor unit and will testify to the panel at a later stage regarding his evidence. He questioned why Batohi maintained there was no case against Booysen and instead sought to discredit Chauke as an unfit prosecutor.
“I said there was no evidence to support racketeering charges, I have to emphasize that,” Batohi replied.
She insisted that “there was nothing untoward in a national director not looking at all of the evidence when you appoint an experienced team to look at it”.
“And I also want to make the point that, I’m not saying General Booysen is an angel. The fact remains that when we charge people we must make sure that we meet the standard of proof required for those particular charges,” Batohi added.