Durban - Suspended Hawks head Major-General Johan Booysen has written to the police management asking when he can report for duty because, he believes, he has been cleared of all the charges he was facing in an internal disciplinary inquiry.
Booysen did not want to comment on Wednesday, but a source involved in the continuing legal battles to clear his name said the verdict had been expected either on Tuesday or on Wednesday.
“He heard nothing. His legal representatives made some enquiries and were told informally that the presiding officer, advocate Nazeer Cassim SC, had handed in his report, and that it had acquitted him on all charges and instructed that Booysen report to work,” the source said.
It is understood that Booysen’s attorney, Carl van der Merwe, wrote to the national head office asking when his client should report for duty. By late on Wednesday, he had not received a reply. The Mercury sent questions to the police, but also received no reply.
Cassim confirmed he had “completed his task and reported to the ministry”.
“It will be wrong for me to say more. Please respect the process,” he said.
On Wednesday night, the DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard called for Booysen to be reinstated. She was aware of reports that Booysen had been cleared of all disciplinary charges, although the national police commissioner, Riah Phiyega, had yet to send him the final paperwork.
She said it appeared that Phiyega was withholding it.
Booysen was suspended in August 2012 when he and members of Durban’s organised crime unit were arrested on charges that they were running a “death squad”.
In March this year, all charges against him were withdrawn after he successfully challenged his prosecution under the racketeering laws.
The State abandoned an application to appeal against that ruling.
The police instituted the disciplinary charges, which related to his alleged failure to take action against members for their alleged use of excessive force, just before the charges were withdrawn - 18 months after he was suspended.
Two private prosecutors were hired by the police service, and witnesses include some of those who are listed as witnesses in any eventual trial against the 27 Cato Manor policemen who are still facing 116 charges and are due to appear in court again early next year.
After his acquittal in March, Booysen said: “It is not a case of getting my job back. I was not fired. It was always mine.”
It is believed if he gets confirmation of his acquittal, he intends being back behind his desk on Friday.
Kohler Barnard said she had sent questions to the police minister asking how much the “witchhunt” against Booysen had cost.
“Should the South African Police Service be so misguided as to yet again take the result on review, they must pay from their own pockets.”
The Mercury