Bernadette Wolhuter
KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Major-General Johan Booysen has fired back at allegations that a former police reservist witnessed the Cato Manor organised crime unit execute a crime suspect on his orders.
Speaking to The Mercury yesterday, Booysen said the reservist’s accusation was “fraught with fabrications”.
Yesterday the Sunday Times reported that Ari Danikas, a Greek national and former police reservist who worked with the unit, witnessed members of the unit torture and execute crime suspects. He also said Booysen had told him to “put a bullet” in the head of gang leader Jabulani Mhlongo, days before the suspect was shot and killed by police.
Danikas said Booysen was at the scene after the shooting to commend the officers involved.
“At the time of the 2001 shooting Danikas mentions, I was working at the provincial headquarters. I did not work that night, I was not even there,” said Booysen.
He also said the Cato Manor branch only came into being in 2002.
“Danikas said unit members gathered at the Cato Manor police station,” said Booysen, “But the Rossburgh Projects Office handled that matter.”
The Sunday Times said that Danikas had shared information with investigators and, in October last year, a newspaper quoted the Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesman Moses Dlamini saying Hawks investigators and a member of the prosecuting team had interviewed Danikas at a “secret European location”.
However, yesterday Dlamini denied having said that.
“We have never interviewed anyone by the name (Ari Danikas),” he said. “I did not say that. It is nonsense.” He added that he was “puzzled” by the story and by the Sunday Times article.
When asked if the directorate would investigate Danikas’s allegations, Dlamini said he was unable to answer.
“We have completed our investigation and handed it over to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).”
NPA spokeswoman Natasha Ramkisson was unable to comment.
Booysen and his co-accused will appear next in the Durban Magistrate’s Court in May.
He and 27 of his colleagues face murder and racketeering charges in connection with alleged “death squad” activities.
