New NPA Chief Drops Years-Old Charges Against Ex-Hawks Boss

In her first major decision since being appointed six months ago, National Prosecuting Authority chief Shamila Batohi today dropped seven-year-old racketeering charges against former KZN Hawks boss Johan Booysen, in a controversial case that had always been seen as politically motivated.

Bulelwa Makeke, spokesperson for the NPA, said in an interview with the SABC that Batohi had put together a panel of four people from the NPA, two of whom were very experienced in the organised crime unit of the NPA. They decided that going from the information they had, it did not warrant the authorization of the racketeering charges.

Makeke said there were a lot of other cases at the NPA, instituted by her predecessors, that Batohi had to review on the same basis.

General Booysen had first been charged in 2012 by Nomgcobo Jiba. who was acting head of the NPA at the time, and then again by Shaun Abrahams in 2016. It was seen as a politically motivated case, and Booysen repeatedly denied the allegations related to running a murder gang and was reported in the press today as saying he always knew justice would prevail.

Booysen maintained that he was targeted unlawfully by Jiba after he had started investigating the business operations of Thoshan Panday, a KwaZulu-Natal businessman with close ties to the Zuma family. Booysen also told the state capture inquiry earlier this year that he had been targeted for blocking the business interests of Jacob Zuma’s son, Edward Zuma.

The NPA said in a statement that Batohi had decided to withdraw the racketeering charges against Booysen after they were reviewed by a panel. The panel suggested that the authorisations for the prosecutions of Booysen by both Jiba and Abrahams were “invalid,” according to news reports.

Booysen earlier took Jiba’s decision on review and in February 2014 Judge Trevor Gorven set the charges of racketeering aside in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban. Gorven ruled that no rational explanation – not even loosely defined – existed to support Jiba’s decision.

Mxolisi Nxasana, who replaced Jiba as head of the NPA, launched an investigation into her actions against Booysen in light of Gorven’s ruling. Jiba was subsequently charged with perjury and fraud, after which she appeared in the Regional Court in Pretoria in July 2015. Abrahams, who replaced Nxasana, decided – despite the opinion of the two prosecutors assigned to the matter  that a strong case existed against Jiba – to withdraw the case against her.