Anwa Dramat, then commander of the Hawks, and Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) boss Robert McBride also asked Nxasana to review his junior\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n In his letter, Booysen told Nxasana: \u201cThis missive from the office of the DPP KwaZulu-Natal … is permeated with conjecture, innuendo, inaccuracies and, in certain instances, blatant untruths. Her assertions are an aberration which lacks substance supported by credible evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Booysen is no disinterested observer: he is fighting for his professional survival and has made thinly veiled references to being targeted directly as a result of his involvement in investigating Panday.<\/p>\n But a legal expert, who asked not to be named, concurred with Booysen\u2019s assessment of Noko\u2019s memo. The man, a senior constitutional lawyer, said: \u201cIt\u2019s an appalling document; the whole situation is a cesspool … the moment anyone raises any resistance to what\u2019s happening in KZN, be they Dramat, Booysen, Nxasana or others, they get suspended.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Unauthorised interception’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Noko told amaBhungane: \u201cI am not concerned about what is being alleged by whoever, as you indicate, as I have my reasons based on a notion of prosecution towards revelation of truth and justice, and I stand by my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Booysen is fighting his fourth suspension and Nxasana\u2019s review process appears to be in limbo following his replacement by Shaun Abrahams as public prosecutions director.<\/p>\n Nxasana appointed senior Gauteng prosecutor Gerrie Nel to re-examine the Panday case, but Abrahams has reportedly terminated\u00a0Nel\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n Abrahams\u2019s office refused to comment on claims that Nel had re-commended that both Panday and KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni be re-charged.<\/p>\n The semantic and factual maze produced by Noko cannot be understood without considering the extraordinary history of the Panday matter \u2013 and an earlier, equally mystifying decision by her colleague, advocate Abram Letsholo.<\/p>\n Read:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Panday was first investigated under case 781\/06\/2010, which alleged that he had conspired with Madhoe, a procurement officer at police headquarters in Durban, to defraud the South African Police Service by inflating a R60-million contract to supply temporary accommodation for police members in KwaZulu-Natal during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.<\/p>\n Later, Panday was arrested in case 466\/09\/2011 after he allegedly offered Booysen a R2-million bribe to backdate a report \u2013 possibly creating the impression that before obtaining subpoenas, the police gained illegal access to Panday\u2019s bank accounts.<\/p>\n Central to the decisions by both Noko and Letsholo were allegations by Panday after he discovered his electronic communications had been monitored since 2010.<\/p>\n ‘Get rid of this black bitch commissioner’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n He was arrested in September 2011. More than a year later, he signed a dramatic affidavit claiming that shortly before his arrest there had been an attempt to blackmail him using intercepted material.<\/p>\n He also complained to the inspector general of intelligence about \u201cunauthorised interception\u201d and of \u201cthreats\u201d directed at him.<\/p>\n In his affidavit, Panday described how, in early September 2011, just after the alleged attempt to bribe Booysen, he was lured to a meeting with provincial head of crime intelligence General Deena Moodley.<\/p>\n Read:<\/strong><\/p>\n He alleged that Moodley referred disparagingly to Ngobeni, saying: \u201cI need to get rid of this black bitch commissioner and I need your assistance,\u201d before playing him recordings of a number of conversations he had had with businesspeople \u2013 including Edward Zuma \u2013 politicians, his attorney and the KwaZulu-Natal commissioner.<\/p>\n \u201cConversations I had had with various female acquaintances were also played to me and General Deena Moodley threatened to reveal these to my wife should I refuse to co-operate with him,\u201d Panday stated.<\/p>\n Somewhat implausibly, Panday alleged he was also played conversations with his attorney and that Moodley conveniently incriminated himself by stating: \u201cNow that we know what defences you will use I will make sure that all those avenues are closed to you.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘The evidence as it stands at this point is irredeemably stained’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The claims, if true, could conceivably have justified a decision to weigh up whether the charges against Panday were compromised. Indeed, they form the only real basis for the decisions by Letsholo and Noko to abandon the prosecution. Yet Moodley and his colleagues strenuously deny that they played Panday any recordings \u2013 and their version has never been tested against his claims.<\/p>\n Moodley has been on forced \u201cspecial leave\u201d for nearly two years. As far as could be established, no charges relating to the Panday allegations have ever been brought against him.<\/p>\n His three subordinates were suspended, but they were recently ordered to be reinstated after the South African Police Service failed to produce disciplinary charges for nearly a year.<\/p>\n ‘You are working toward a hidden agenda with certain individuals’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n AmaBhungane has seen evidence showing that a judge\u2019s authorisations were obtained for the police interceptions of Panday. They were first initiated because of alleged threats to the investigating officers and renewed on multiple occasions by two different judges.<\/p>\n Panday\u2019s complaint to the inspector general of intelligence was finalised more than two years ago, but the intelligence office referred amaBhungane to Panday.<\/p>\n He in turn declined to divulge the outcome of the investigation, raising doubts about whether it supports his claims. Panday said: \u201cPlease note that I do not propose to reply to your mail below as it is very apparent to me … that you are working toward a hidden agenda with certain individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n Letsholo, the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit (SCCU) prosecutor who quashed the original World Cup fraud charges, penned his own memorandum.<\/p>\n It shows that he simply accepted Panday\u2019s allegations as true, without making any effort to have them investigated. He also makes no attempt to analyse how the allegations affect the R60-million fraud claim, but simply asserts: \u201cThe evidence as it stands at this point is irredeemably stained … I have therefore taken a decision to decline to prosecute in this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Was this a lawfully justified arrest or was it a way to pressurise him to implicate the PC … ?’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n To gain some understanding of how Letsholo\u2019s conjecture was seized on by Noko to justify her own decision, a passage from Noko\u2019s memorandum abandoning the bribery charges will suffice.<\/p>\n She writes: \u201cCase 781 [the WC fraud] was dealt with by the SCCU in Durban and disposed of recently with a decision not to prosecute anyone as there was no evidence to prosecute any person with any offence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been revealed by the SCCU that the SAPS members who were charged with the investigation of this 781 case were gunning for the prosecution of a specific person [KZN SAPS Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Ngobeni] and Mr Panday and Colonel Madhoe were being pressurised to falsely implicate her in the commission of criminal offences, with a promise that they will be exonerated in 781.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the SAPS investigators realised that the PC [provincial commissioner] cannot be charged in this case (781), simply because there is no evidence against her, one I\/O [investigating officer] reportedly said that the SCCU prosecutor may as well just close this 781 case. It appears [that]Mr Panday and Colonel Madhoe featured nowhere in the 781 then as the focus was on the PC.<\/p>\n \u201cOne then may ask a question, why was Colonel Madhoe arrested in case 466 [the bribery case]? Was this a lawfully justified arrest or was it a way to pressurise him to implicate the PC … ?\u201d<\/p>\n Booysen\u2019s response is strained.<\/p>\n He charges: \u201cThe tenor and tone of advocate Noko\u2019s contentions appears to be that of a defence counsel rather than that of a prosecutor … it would appear that advocate Noko is usurping the function of the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Sally Evans<\/em><\/p>\n * Got a tip-off for us about this story? Click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Reasons for dropping charges against Durban businessman reveal faulty law and logic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30783,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220\/revisions\/30783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n(Major General Johan Booysen Photo: Gallo Images\/City Press\/Khaya Ngwenya)<\/em><\/p>\n\n
\n
![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ipadmmamonnyengobeni.jpg\")
\n(<\/em>KZN police comissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni. Photo: Courtesy City Press)<\/em><\/p>\n\n
![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/94x94.jpg\")
<\/a>The M&G<\/em> Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) produced this story. All views are ours. See www.amabhungane.co.za <\/a> for our stories, activities and funding sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"