Madonsela shaken by 'hit' reports
Suspected gang boss Jerome 'Donkie' Booysen denies rumours he was paid R740 000 to assassinate Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.
|||Cape Town - Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who last weekend said she had been warned a gang kingpin had been paid R740 000 to orchestrate her assassination, has been rattled by fake reports she was shot nine times.
Meanwhile, suspected Sexy Boys gang boss Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, who was this week identified as the man who allegedly received payment to arrange her murder, said he was not involved in any such plot and planned to sue those who were making false claims about him.
“I’ve got my own money. I don’t need other people’s money,” he told Weekend Argus.
A police informant on April 1 warned Madonsela via a SMS that a local gang boss had been paid to have her murdered.
Madonsela took the threat seriously and beefed up her security.
Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane’s office is investigating the hit plot claims, although the informant’s credibility has been questioned by some police officers who say she has been peddling dubious information “for years”.
The website www.satirenews.co.za, which says its articles may not be true, reported one of Madonsela’s bodyguards had shot her nine times before killing himself.
The article, published on Tuesday, said the public protector was in intensive care. It provided a graphic description of her injuries.
The article sparked outrage on social media.
Madonsela told Weekend Argus on Friday: “I’m well but the public protector team and my family are rattled. The situation was compounded by the hoax message that’s been doing rounds saying I’ve been shot nine times.”
Janine Raftopoulos, the Film and Publication Board’s spokeswoman, said the board had received complaints about the article and had referred these to the press ombudsman.
Weekend Argus was unable to get comment from Satirenews.
The informant who tipped off Madonsela about the hit described the satirical article as “the work of the enemy trying to scare (Madonsela).”
The informant claimed her life was in danger.
She said gangsters accosted her on Monday in Strand where she was collecting “evidence” and held her for hours. She said they did not harm her when they decided she was not interfering with their business.
The informant said she had beefed up her own security. “I don’t trust the police.”
On Friday Madonsela said she was aware of the informant’s fears. “She has advised that she suffered a backlash and I’ve advised her to report the matter to appropriate authorities.”
The informant previously passed on information about the assassination plot and other crimes to Community Safety MEC Dan Plato.
Weekend Argus this week established that the so-called gang boss in the Madonsela “murder plot” was Booysen.
But Booysen described those who had implicated him as “bef**.”
Booysen was five years ago named by a policeman during a court case as the head of the Sexy Boys gang, which has a stronghold in Belhar, and as a suspect in the 2011 murder of underworld boss Cyril Beeka. He was never arrested.
Booysen was named by the same informant in a controversial affidavit dated February 26, which became central to a row between Plato and Major-General Jeremy Vearey, the deputy provincial police commissioner for detectives who has accused the MEC of being behind a plan to discredit him, using affidavits from informants to do so. Plato has denied this.
The affidavit claimed Vearey was working with Booysen, who allegedly had ordered a murder in Strand in January.
Weekend Argus
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za