INLSA
Booysen
Hawks provincial head Major-General Johan Booysen was back behind his desk yesterday after winning a second legal challenge against his police bosses, which also left the door open to his pursuing criminal charges of contempt of court against his boss, Hawks national head Anwa Dramat.
In a brief court hearing before Durban Labour Court Judge David Gush, the State conceded to an order immediately setting aside the suspension notice served on Booysen late on Monday.
It also has to pay his legal costs, which are running into hundreds of thousands of rand for the two urgent court applications he has brought so far to save his job.
Booysen brought the latest urgent application after he was suspended in contravention of a previous interdict he obtained, restraining Dramat, the minister of police and the acting commissioner of police from removing him from his post until they had fleshed out details of allegations of misconduct against him, so that he could make meaningful representations.
After yesterday’s hearing, Booysen’s lawyer, Carl van der Merwe, said the State had no grounds on which to oppose the application.
Part of the application was for an order holding the respondents in contempt of court.
Van der Merwe said this had been adjourned sine die (without a date), and “the possibility of laying criminal proceedings for contempt is being seriously considered”.
He said he was still waiting for a response to his request for further details of the allegations contained in the initial suspension letter served on Booysen.
The letter said he had failed to act on information he had received about the shooting of taxi driver Bongani Mkhize by members of the now disbanded Cato Manor organised crime unit.
The unit, which fell under Booysen’s command, was disbanded because of allegations in a Sunday newspaper report that some of its members operated as a death squad. About half of its members have also been threatened with suspension and have been told that they may have to face disciplinary hearings.
Yesterday, many of them came to court and afterwards shook hands with Booysen, who urged them to continue to give their jobs their best efforts.
The death squad allegations have, for the past three months, been probed by three high-level teams: one set up by Dramat under General Jan Mabula, one set up by the Independent Complaints Directorate and another disciplinary committee, headed by a colonel from the Hawks head office.
No one has been been suspended or charged yet in connection with the allegations.
