Cop says bribe charge is bid to shut him up over KZN hit squads

11 December 2011 - 03:16 By STEPHAN HOFSTATTER, MZILIKAZI WA AFRIKA and ROB ROSE
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Members of the Cato Manor organised crime unit in a good mood after shooting two suspects at a homestead in KwaZulu-Natal in 2008, while someone, who appears to be a family member of the deceased, weeps.
Members of the Cato Manor organised crime unit in a good mood after shooting two suspects at a homestead in KwaZulu-Natal in 2008, while someone, who appears to be a family member of the deceased, weeps.
Image: Sunday Times

Colonel Navin Madhoe - who was arrested on charges of offering a R2-million bribe to Hawks provincial head Major-General Johan Booysen - claims the real reason for the action against him was that he tried to blow the whistle on the alleged police hit squad operating in KwaZulu-Natal.

In an affidavit filed during his bail application, which is in the possession of the Sunday Times, Madhoe claims that Booysen contacted him and "requested a meeting" on August 25.

He states: "I was informed by General Booysen to obtain certain compact discs containing incriminating evidence of serious crimes in a unit under his direct command.

"This, he informed me, was damaging for him as the discs contained direct evidence of serious and violent crimes of his members and could lead to widespread criminal prosecutions."

The Sunday Times was told the discs contained hundreds of photographs of people who were allegedly killed by police officers in the province.

Most of the killings were allegedly committed by members of the Cato Manor organised crime unit. Witnesses claim some of the people were executed by unit members and crime scenes were doctored.

Photographs seen by the Sunday Times show members of the Cato Manor unit celebrating with a braai after some of the shootings.

Madhoe adds in his affidavit that he obtained "this information ... and handed the first batch of compact discs to General Booysen personally".

"We had approximately eight meetings at various times and places at his instance to obtain more discs and computer hard-drives of the source of the discs. He also asked me to approach another senior officer to establish if he too had copies of the said discs, which I did."

Madhoe says his action "in this regard was duly recorded and certain select police officers and intelligence were well aware of my action".

In an interview with the Sunday Times on Friday, Booysen acknowledged that he received two discs, a memory stick and a hard-drive from Madhoe with photographs.

Booysen denied that Madhoe had used the photos to try to blackmail him into squashing a R60-million corruption case against Madhoe and businessman Toshan Panday.

The Hawks are investigating Madhoe and Panday for their alleged role in a police accommodation tender scam at a time when Madhoe was a senior supply chain management officer.

They are also accused of trying to bribe Booysen to backdate an investigation report into the scam.

Panday and Madhoe are out on bail of R100, 000 and R40, 000 respectively.

With regard to the slew of crime scene pictures, Booysen said: "I was never blackmailed but I was shown and handed the photographs."

He suggested the Sunday Times could be open to prosecution for having the pictures.

"I can tell you the photographs were stolen from police," he said. "Anybody in possession of them, is in possession of stolen goods."

But he could not explain why a charge of theft or possession of stolen goods in connection with the photos was not added to Madhoe's charge sheet when he was arrested.

Madhoe claims in a sworn statement if the discs weren't handed in as evidence when he was arrested in September, it would point to a cover up of the Cato Manor killings.

He said: "I was arrested under the ruse of this alleged bribery attempt to falsely implicate the provincial commissioner and Panday."

Panday is also accused of bankrolling a birthday party for Brigadier Lucas Ngobeni, the husband of the provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni.

The birthday party, attended by 40 guests, was held at The Dish restaurant on May 29 2010.

A local DJ who entertained the guests was also allegedly paid by Panday.

Booysen said the Internal Complaints Directorate (ICD) was investigating some of the killings linked to the photographs he obtained from Madhoe.

"The photos are the subjects of investigations by the ICD and the Hawks," he said.

ICD spokesman Moses Dlamini confirmed that the directorate, which deals with complaints against the police, was investigating members of the Durban organised crime unit.

investigations@sundaytimes.co.za

Note: In a previous version of this article we incorrectly stated that Colonel Navin Madhoe said his disks of Cato Manor shootings had not been handed in as evidence. In fact, Madhoe said they ought to have been handed in and if they weren’t then this would signal a cover up.

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