State adds more woes for Booi and Stanfield

Alleged underworld gang boss Ralph Stanfield, his wife Nicole Johnson and former mayco member Malusi Booi could be slapped with more charges when they appear again in court in what could be the province’s largest criminal matter.

The three will join nearly 50 accused facing a minimum of 54 charges including murder, money laundering, racketeering and contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca) by operating an enterprise. The State was granted a joinder application for the cases, which involve Stanfield and Booi, at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Booi is accused of allegedly colluding with the alleged 28s (The Firm) gang boss Stanfield and Johnson’s enterprise (Stanfield enterprise) in which they benefited from 11 tenders issued by the City to the value of about R850 million.

Magistrate Alida Theart granted the application for Booi and his co-accused – Suraya Manuel, Mohammad Amod, Randal Mullins, Brenda Mullins, Thuli Imbgi, Nomvuyo Mnyaka, Lorna Ndoda and Siphokazi September – to be added to the Stanfield and Johnson matter.

The State is yet to remove Abdul Kader Davids, who was shot dead while walking in Ascot Street, Beacon Valley, Mitchells Plain two days after he was released on R250 000 bail, from the accused list as they have not yet received a death certificate from the family.

In the Stanfield and Johnson matter, their co-accused are Michael Morris, Chevonne McNab, Sharazaadht Essop Johnson, Johannes Abrahams, Denver Booysen, Jonathan Cloete, Shakeel Pelston, Abraham Wilson, Warren-Lee Dennis and Imtiyaaz Sedick.

State prosecutor Frank van Heerden told the court that they expect to add more charges and suspects to the matter.

The suspects expected to be added are currently before the Bellville Magistrate’s Court and include Stanfield’s brother Kyle Stanfield, Stanfield’s mother-in-law Barbara Johnson, Suraya Manual, and Phakamisa Nondabula.

The State said they would be adding 24 more accused to the matter.

In a packed courtroom, Van Heerden told the court they had eight witness statements outstanding, cellphone data records to be downloaded as well as bank statement analysis. Van Heerden told the court that as their mammoth investigation continues, during a recent search and seizure at Stanfield’s home, a second passport and bank statements were found.

Due to new evidence coming to the fore in the case against all accused, Van Heerden requested a postponement for further investigation until the end of January next year which aggrieved all defence counsel. The counsel also submitted that the joinder was “premature” and if granted, the postponement would be a “miscarriage of justice and outrageous”.

Counsel for the accused, a number of them appearing via Audio Visual Remand (AVR) at various detention facilities including Pollsmoor, Brandvlei and Drakenstein, argued the challenges they had in consulting with their clients who appeared to have difficulty hearing them during proceedings.

Stanfield’s attorney, Frans Mashele, said his client was arrested last year and had the right to a fair and speedy trial.

“We are now told there are still investigations pending.”

“Now there are outstanding issues of statements...the bank statements obtained in the garage were not obtained last week. Up until this far, nothing has been done. We cannot have a situation of arrest and then investigate. Justice delayed is justice denied and all these accused are being prejudiced unnecessarily,” said Mashele.

Describing the case as a “complete farce that flies in the face of justice”, counsels submitted that the charges be provisionally withdrawn or struck from the roll and back in court when the State’s “house is in order”.

Theart said while she agreed with the defence that the matters were delayed over a period of time, she would grant the State’s request for a postponement as it was dealing with new evidence.

The matter was postponed to January 31, 2024. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said the reason the state asked for postponement to next year was “due to staff shortages as there was one person who does the downloading of cellphone data and analysis in the province”.

“That is the same for computer and computer data downloading and analysis. The defence vehemently opposed our application but we explained to the court that we were alive to the needs of a fair and speedy trial for the accused. We also informed the court that there was a search and seizure at the residency of (Stanfield) where a lot of bank accounts were seen. We have served Section 205s to the banks to get bank statements. These are still outstanding. We have indicated to the court that we joined the accused because the cases were overlapping.

We committed ourselves to prioritise the downloading,” said Ntabazalila.

Cape Times