Booysen: ‘I will respond to MK Party at the right time’

Former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Johan Booysen has declined to publicly engage with fresh demands by the MK Party for the reinstatement of criminal charges linked to the controversial Cato Manor unit, choosing instead to defer any response to formal legal processes. Booysen and some members of the Hawks’ Cato Manor unit in eThekwini were criminally charged in 2012 in connection with the deaths of suspects in the area. In 2019, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) withdrew the charges against Booysen and members of the Cato Manor unit.

However, the MK Party, which has filed papers in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria seeking the reinstatement of the charges, this week wrote to National Director of Public Prosecutions Rodney Mothibi, demanding the “immediate re-evaluation and reinstatement of criminal charges” against Booysen and members of the unit. Contacted byThe Witnessfor comment on the MK Party’s latest move, Booysen declined to respond to the party’s demands. “I will address it, if the need arises, at the appropriate forum,” he said.

In a strongly worded statement, the MK Party said it will exhaust all avenues in its campaign to have the charges against Booysen and former members of the Cato Manor unit reinstated. “The prosecutorial mandate is a solemn constitutional duty that cannot be deferred or disregarded. “Where credible allegations of unlawful killings by state agents exist, the interests of justice demand decisive and independent action,” said MK Party national spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela.