Nhleko shields Ntlemeza from Booysen questions

I have just asked General Ntlemeza not to respond to those questions precisely because what we should be able to respect around legal issues is to observe the processes that are unfolding. The issue pertaining to General Booysen is a matter before our courts,” Nhleko told journalists.

“The question of the issues like the ones you are raising are to be contested, both technically and legally, at that particular level (court). The other thing I want to say is that we should also be careful on how we express ourselves around legal issues, be it judgments and anything else… If there are allegations, there are allegations, and you can’t say if somebody is facing allegations then it translates to guiltiness. Surely, General Booysen is not guilty of any particular offence as we speak. He is facing allegations that have to be subjected to a process,” Nhleko said.

Ntlemeza had been asked to explain why he was persisting in petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal after the Hawks failed in its appeal last week against a High Court decision overturning Booysen’s suspension.

Ntlemeza, who was sitting next to Nhleko at the briefing, ended up not saying anything.

On Friday, in the latest bid to keep Booysen from working, Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said Ntlemeza had noted the Durban High Court’s decision to dismiss the appeal.

“The national head has decided to take the matter further by instructing his attorneys to file a petition with the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) against the judgment of the high court.”

Judge Anton van Zyl ruled in the Durban High Court on Wednesday that there was no prospect of a successful appeal against his November 18 ruling that overturned a decision to suspend Booysen amid allegations of fraud.

Shortly after Ntlemeza was appointed national head of the Hawks in 2015 he suspended Booysen on September 14.

Booysen was suspended amid allegations of fraud amounting to more than R15,000 – an allegation that he has consistently denied.

Ntlemeza’s legal team has previously argued that the court was not the proper forum to hear an application against the suspension, but Van Zyl ruled in his November 18, 2015 judgement that the court was entitled to hear it.

Ntlemeza, in his submissions to the court, claimed that Booysen and the men tasked with investigating a police officer’s assassination fraudulently received a monetary reward for shooting dead six innocent men.

Ntlemeza further claimed that while the award was for tracking down the men who assassinated Superintendent Zethembe Chonco in August 2008, the case numbers used to secure the award were for unrelated cases in Howick, of housebreaking and motor vehicle theft.

Booysen was accused of supplying false case numbers in a bid to obtain the award.

Booysen, however, denied authoring the document which resulted in him and his men receiving the award for tracking down and killing Chonco’s killers. He denied that he had anything to do with the granting of the award.

In his November 18 ruling, Van Zyl questioned why Ntlemeza had chosen to ignore Booysen’s representation and evidence.

The judge also stated that Ntlemeza could not simply suspend a person and there had to be “a rational basis” for a suspension.

In the application for leave to appeal, William Mokhari SC, for the Hawks, argued that Van Zyl did not have the right to hear the matter because it was a labour dispute and Ntlemeza was within his rights to suspend Booysen.

However, Gardner van Niekerk SC, for Booysen, argued that the court had been right to hear the matter as Booysen’s constitutional right to be employed had been infringed.

Mokhari on Wednesday argued that as the matter was an issue governed by police regulations the threshold required was that Ntlemeza simply needed “a reason to believe” that Booysen had done something wrong.

“You simply have to have a reason to believe [that Booysen had committed an offence]. It does not have to be a prima facie test.

Van Niekerk argued that Ntlemeza, being a public official, was not entitled to arbitrarily exercise his right to suspend Booysen and that as a public official Ntlemeza’s decision had to be lawful and rational.

Van Zyl dismissed Wednesday’s application with costs, saying: “There are no reasonable prospects for success.”

Last week Ntlemeza appointed a new KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head, officially known as the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation.

Mulaudzi said: “Pending the finalisation of the petition, the status quo will remain to the effect that Maj-Gen Booysens remains on suspension. No further queries will be taken.”

Booysen’s lawyer Carl van der Merwe said he had been given notice by Ntlemeza’s legal team that they intended to petition the SCA.

Photo: Gallo