Cato manor cops' case postponed to 2014
The case against 28 police officers of the Durban Organised Crime Unit was postponed on Monday to next year.
The officers of the Cato Manor branch of the now disbanded Durban Organised Crime Unit will have to wait until June 23 next year to find out when they will stand trial on a string of charges ranging from murder to racketeering.
Judge Esther Steyn on Monday postponed the case in the Durban High Court to June 23 next year -- almost two years since the first officers were arrested in June 2012.
Steyn granted the adjournment after State prosecutor Selo Maema requested it. He said the case needed to be postponed pending an application brought by Maj-Gen Johan Booysens, the former head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal, who had commanded the unit.
That matter, in which Booysens is challenging the validity of racketeering charges against him, will be argued in the Durban High Court in February.
Maema said the question of how the 28 officers' legal representation would be paid needed to be resolved before a trial date could be set.
Originally 30 officers were charged and arrested, but two of them have since died. The 28 are out on bail and have been suspended pending the outcome of the case.
-Sapa