Durban - Twenty-five South African Police Service (SAPS) detectives from the now disbanded Durban Organised Crime Unit based at Cato Manor appeared briefly in the Durban High Court on Friday.
Two detectives did not appear for health reasons and their lawyer Carl van der Merwe was told by Judge Nompumulelo Radebe that his clients would have to appear in court on October 23, bringing the total number of detectives facing charges to 27.
Radebe ordered that warrants of arrest be issued, but not acted upon if the two – Mukesh Panday and Jeremy Martin – did not appear in court on that day.
Radebe postponed the case against the detectives until February 19 next year.
The 27 detectives face 116 charges, including 28 of murder, as well as charges of racketeering and defeating the ends of justice.
The group allegedly carried out paid hits in the KwaZulu-Natal taxi wars. The charges cover the period 2008 to 2011. They were arrested in 2012 and two of the accused detectives have since died.
Another two accused had resigned from the police and took jobs in the private sector at the time of the arrests.
The accused were suspended on full pay and have been out on bail since 2012.
On October 23 an application is set to be heard before the Durban High Court compelling the State to hand over documentation that it is apparently relying on to prosecute the men to the defence counsel.
Their boss, Major General Johan Booysen, was cleared by Judge Trevor Gorven of racketeering charges in a high court hearing last year.
He was then cleared in an internal disciplinary hearing by Advocate Nazeer Cassim, who said in his report that: “The facts demonstrate an agenda to get rid of Booysen because he was perceived (rightly so I may add) as a determined, professional, competent and tenacious policeman who would arduously strive to bring wrongdoers to book”.
ANA