Murder-accused Colin Booysen has raised questions over why his older brother, Jerome ‘Donkie’ Booysen, was not arrested with him.
Colin returned to Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Monday for the continuation of his bail hearing alongside Sillico Oliphant and Moegamat Faizel Abrahams.
The State has charged the trio with the assassinations of Marwaan “Dinky” Desai from Mitchells Plain and his henchman, Shameem Mohammed, in June 2017, as well as Joburg gang boss Mark “Bin Laden” Groenewald.
The trio were busted alongside Herbert Zoutman, Prince Khumalo and John Edward Smith.
The group face over 20 charges for various crimes including murder, racketeering and smuggling mandrax worth R1.8 million
In court papers read out by his lawyer, Luzuko Guma, Colin raises questions about the State’s evidence against him following a scathing affidavit submitted to the court by the investigating officer earlier this month.
In the initial affidavit by the investigating team, cops claim that the case stems back to 2013 when they uncovered a mandrax factory in Durbanville allegedly owned by Jerome who is believed to be the leader of the Sexy Boys gang.
Initially investigators were probing both brothers after the bust, but after they discovered Colin was allegedly separating his business from his older brother, they opted to investigate him separately.
Cops intercepted Colin’s communications from August 2015 to March 2018 and further claimed that Jerome excluding Colin from business dealings led to violent clashes in the Western Cape and Gauteng.
In his replying affidavit, Colin claims the factory is owned by his brother but asks why Donkie was not charged.
The court heard: “The State has given a synopsis of the charges levelled against myself and my co applicants.
“The major outline being that these charges, specifically the drug-related charges stem from around 12 December 2013 from a drug house confirmed by the state to be the property of Jerome Booysen who in actual fact is not charged with us herein.
“Important to state further that Jerome Booysen is currently facing criminal charges in the Cape High Court where I am not involved.”
Colin says while cops claimed they intercepted his communications between August 2015 and March 2018, there had been no arrests during this time.
He also says while being accused of the monitoring of Dinky and the murder of Groenewald, the state has not clarified who the shooters were or what role they believe Colin played in the assassinations.
He also points out that despite his co-accused, Zoutman, having a pending drug case alongside Donkie at the Western Cape High Court, the state did not oppose Zoutman’s release on bail in this matter.
The case has been postponed to September 2.
monique.duval@inl.co.za