Prosecutions boss’s memo ‘a pack of lies’

Former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Johan Booysen has damned a 2014 memo by the province’s controversial public prosecutions director‚ Moipone Noko as containing “falsehoods‚ fabrications and omissions”.

Testifying at the state capture inquiry on Thursday‚ Booysen said that when he returned to his position in 2014 after a two-year suspension he had asked for an update on the prosecution of Durban businessman Thoshan Panday and Panday’s then co-accused‚ police Colonel Navin Madhoe.

The pair were accused in two cases – of corruption in a R60m World Cup accommodation scandal‚ and of attempting to bribe Booysen with R2m in exchange for him jeopardising the corruption case by making changes to the case’s documentation.

The bribery case was later withdrawn by Noko and the corruption case was dismissed.

Booysen said he had received a memo from Noko’s office after he made the request for an update.

He said the memo contained “falsehoods‚ fabrications and omissions” and that he took issue with every point Noko had made in it.

He had then written to the National Prosecuting Authority boss at the time, Mxolisi Nxasana.

Booysen read his letter to Nxasana to the commission while referencing each point of Noko’s memorandum that he had responded to in writing.

Noko had said that there was “no evidence to prosecute any person for any offence”.

But Booysen argued that there was a prima facie case against both Madhoe and Panday – the case docket‚ according to him‚ contained 20 leverarch files‚ about 200 witness statements and an independently compiled forensic report.

Noko also claimed that Panday had been promised by police officers investigating him that, if he implicated then KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni‚ they would drop the case against him.

“There is no evidence to remotely support these claims.

“Why would [Ngobeni] be forced to resign if she knew evidence against her was contrived?” Booysen told the commission.

Booysen said he found it suspicious that the same prosecutors were used to wrongly institute charges against socalled “corruption-busters” such as he and former Independent Police Investigative Directorate boss Robert McBride, and to drop charges against suspects they were investigating.

His testimony will continue on Friday.