Durban - The trial of 27 detectives from the now disbanded Durban Organised Crime Unit based at Cato Manor will stand trial in January next year — nearly four years after they were first arrested.
The men appeared briefly in the Durban High Court on Friday where State Prosecutor Raymond Mathenjwa said that the two sides had agreed to the trial of the men starting on January 30, 2017.
The trial has been set down to run from January 30 to April 3.
Mathenjwa also asked Judge Kate Pillay that all applications by the defence must have been lodged and completed before the end of the 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.
Their boss, Major General Johan Booysen, was cleared by Judge Trevor Gorven of all charges in a high court hearing in 2014.
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.”
However, despite the Gorven judgement and Cassim’s findings, newly appointed National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams reinstated charges against Booysen earlier this year.
There was a strong police presence in court on Friday with heavily armed police officers carrying an assortment of weapons, including automatic assault rifles.
African News Agency