Durban - Up until recently, suspended KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Major-General Johan Booysen and Cape Town businessman Gaston Savoi had little in common.
But now they are both facing charges of racketeering in criminal cases which have political undertones. And they are eyeing out cases in which they are both challenging aspects of South Africa’s racketeering laws.
Booysen has been on suspension for more than a year since his arrest, along with members of Durban’s organised crime unit based at Cato Manor, on 116 charges involving allegations that they formed a “hit squad” under his command.
Booysen was at the Constitutional Court last Monday when lawyers for Savoi, the main man in R144 million KwaZulu-Natal government fraud and corruption “Amigos trial”, put forward his case aimed at scratching out what he said were unconstitutional provisions in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
One - that an accused “ought to reasonably have known” that his conduct constituted an offence of racketeering - has already been provisionally struck down by Pietermaritzburg High Court judge Isaac Madondo.
And this is one of the provisions the State is using against Booysen in his trial.
Judgment was reserved in Savoi’s matter, but, whatever the outcome, it will have ramifications for all prosecutions involving the organised crime-combating legislation which carries a penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of R100m.
Booysen’s own challenge to be heard by a judge in Durban in February - focuses on the decision by then prosecutions boss Nomgcobo Jiba to charge him with racketeering which, he alleges, was wrong because there was no evidence before her to justify it.
The charge is the glue which binds Booysen to the case and the alleged crimes - including murders and robberies - to each other. If he succeeds, the State will only be able to proceed against individual policemen in separate cases.
It is likely that, whatever the outcome of his case in February, the loser will go on appeal - a process which will take many more months. It is for this reason that the main case was adjourned again yesterday in the Durban High Court to a holding date in June.
Under the watch of heavily armed policemen, the 28 accused appeared briefly before Judge Esther Steyn.
Prosecutor advocate Sello Maema told the judge that the adjournment was also required for the men to sort out legal representation.
Their attorney, Carl van der Merwe, told The Mercury afterwards that they would apply for state assistance, but this could only be done once a trial was set “and we are probably looking at 2015”.
The Mercury