Booysen: 'I'm aware of the threat'
Former KZN Hawks head Johan Booysen says he’s been aware of an apparent hit placed on his life for several weeks now. Allegations emerged in Parliament yesterday.
DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard claimed that ANC big-wigs - including former president Jacob Zuma, Super Zuma, Sihle Zikalala and Dudu Myeni - had apparently met with uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans in Cornubia, north of Durban, to discuss the plot.
Kohler-Barnard aired the allegations during the debate on the Police budget vote.
A career cop, Booysen has been involved in several high profile cases over the years and was investigating an alleged corrupt relationship between businessman Thoshan Panday and provincial police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni, when he and more than 20 of his colleagues were arrested on a raft of controversial charges in 2012.
That case is still before the courts.
Speaking to Newswatch, Booysen says the threat Kohler-Barnard referred to yesterday came to his attention roughly a month ago, but that in the beginning he was “quite skeptical” about it.
He was approached on three subsequent occasions, though.
“Two of them (those who came forward) actually came to inform me. They wouldn't even talk on the phone,” he says, “When the last one came - that was as recent as a couple of days ago - I thought I needed to take it a bit more seriously”.
The uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association has distanced itself from any illegal activity, while Zikalala’s spokesperson has dismissed the allegations.
Myeni, Super Zuma and the former president's spokesperson have not yet responded to Newswatch's requests for comment.