LISTEN: Johan Booysen ‘exonerated’ by Sunday Times apology
Former head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal, Johan Booysen, says he feels vindicated in the wake of The Sunday Times' apology for the series of stories it wrote about him and his former colleagues.
In 2012, Booysen and more than 20 others from the now disbanded Cato Manor Serious and Violent Crimes Unit were arrested, following the articles in which the paper alleged they'd been operating a 'death squad'.
Yesterday, the Sunday Times ran a piece penned by Booysen himself, entitled 'The death squad that wasn't.'
The newspaper's editor Bongani Siqoko has now apologised for the articles and said the paper will be returning the awards and prize money received by the journalists who wrote them.
"A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. Obviously, now with The Sunday Times apologising for the article - I think there's a bit of perspective into this whole sordid saga," Booysen says.
Booysen says while the criminal case against him and his former colleagues is still before the courts, he's confident an application they've launched against former National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss Shaun Abrahams - challenging his 2016 decision to reinstate racketeering charges against them, after these were dropped - will prove successful.
Listen below: