Simon Nare
Former KwaZulu-Natal director of public prosecutions Moipone Noko told the Nkabinde Inquiry on Thursday that she gave National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi “detailed evidence” supporting prosecutions linked to the Cato Manor organised-crime unit, but that Batohi did not act on it and instead moved to review decisions to charge members of the unit.
The inquiry, chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Bess Nkabinde, is probing whether suspended South Gauteng DPP Andrew Chauke is fit to hold office. Chauke has been accused of unlawfully instituting racketeering charges against the Cato Manor unit and its then head, former Hawks KZN boss, Johan Booysen, among other allegations.
According to its gazetted terms of reference, the inquiry is to probe why Chauke “supported a decision to prosecute the accused notwithstanding that there was no evidence justifying the decision, and he sought to improperly have the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions of KwaZulu-Natal (Noko) sign the case dockets and/or prosecution memorandum detailing the alleged evidence implicating the accused on which the decision to indict had to be made”.
Noko told the inquiry that Batohi wanted to establish a commission of inquiry against her for her decisions to charge the members of the unit.
Noko said she was asked in August 2020 to furnish Batohi with reasons for prosecuting members of the unit and that she complied, sending a detailed response electronically and delivering hard copies.
Asked whether she knew if Batohi had read her submissions, Noko told the inquiry that she knew the response had reached Batohi, but she didn’t get a response.
“The next thing I received was for me to furnish reasons why I should not be suspended. She was not asking about the response. I know she received the response.”
In her testimony, Noko said there were strong cases built in KwaZulu-Natal, including affidavits and ballistic material, alleging a pattern of unlawful killings of taxi operators in which crime scenes were manipulated to resemble self-defence.
She told the inquiry the matters under review involved dozens of murders linked to the same cluster of incidents and alleged common methods used at scenes.
She said several witnesses had deposed affidavits detailing how the unit systematically killed specifically members of the Maphumulo taxi operators.
She alleged that the unit was working in collaboration with a rival taxi association from Stanger which paid the members of the unit a minimum of R10 000 per head.
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She said the unit was rewarded by the South African Police Service for good performance as it was perceived that they had quelled taxi violence in the area, when in actual fact they had been hired by a rival gang.
Noko submitted more than 20 cases of where the crime scenes relating to the taxi operators were allegedly tampered with, to make it seem the unit had killed the deceased in self-defence. But ballistic evidence in all the cases had found that the deceased were shot in cold blood, she said.
In some instances, said Noko, the deceased were shot while lying down. She said evidence suggested the unit forced entry into their houses, killed them, and then planted firearms at the scene.
“In every case, 28 reported, clearly there is more. All of them are killed and all of them were allegedly trying to endanger the police lives even where it doesn’t make sense according to ballistic expert reports.
“These people were killed one after the other. It can’t be how police operate,” she said.
She testified that former NDPP head Advocate Shawn Abrams authorised the prosecution of Booysen, but when Batohi was appointed, all that changed.
Noko said Booysen was supposed to be charged for racketeering as he was the head of the unit, allegedly knew what was going on, and allegedly paid for some of the killings. He could not, however, be placed at crime scenes, she said.
Noko has previously testified that she supported Chauke’s involvement in the prosecution and later took over the matter, saying the prosecution team and presiding officers were brought in from outside KwaZulu-Natal because the accused were familiar with local officials.
The NPA dropped the racketeering charges against Booysen and his co-accused in July 2019, after Batohicommissioned a review panel to re-examine whether the racketeering authorisations obtained were valid.
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The NPA said the panel unanimously concluded that a proper case had not been made out on the papers presented and recommended that the earlier racketeering authorisations (signed in August 2012andFebruary 2016) were invalid.
Booysen has long said that the case against him and members linked to the unit was politically driven. He has stated publicly he was targeted because investigations under his command threatened politically connected figures during the Zuma era, including matters involving Durban businessman and Thoshan Panday, a known financial supporter of then president Jacob Zuma, and former police official Navin Madhoe.
Booysen has specifically alleged that he was prosecuted after “getting in the way” of Zuma’s son, Edward.
Panday and Madhoe have since both been charged with corruption related to police tenders.
In October 2018, the Sunday Times publicly retracted and apologised for its reporting on the so-called Cato Manor “death squad”, saying “something went wrong” in how the information was gathered and that it had been manipulated by sources with “ulterior motives”.
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