Police are pursuing links between axed DA Cape Town mayoral committee member Malusi Booi and the city’s alleged underworld bosses whose companies are believed to have secured contracts from the city worth millions of rands.
The Sunday Times has seen the application for a search warrant by the police's commercial crimes unit in Cape Town just days before they raided Booi’s offices.
The raid was part of their investigation into allegations of fraud and corruption in the city’s human settlements department, which Booi led.
In the application, police say they needed to seize computers and other electronic devices belonging to Booi, his personal assistants, director of human settlements Portia September and others, as part of their investigation, which includes allegations of tender irregularities.
The police’s application states that they needed the devices to search them for various names, including that of alleged 28s gang and The Firm leader Ralph Stanfield, a company linked to him called Glomix, alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome “Donkey” Booysen and at least one large civil engineering company.
The police want “all e-mail communication insofar as it relates to offences committed between January 2018 and February 2023 linked to [certain key words and phrases]".
Glomix, a company run by Stanfield’s wife, Nicole Johnson, from which Stanfield himself resigned and which is registered to their address, was awarded a multimillion-rand housing contract to build about 204 houses in Valhalla Park on the Cape Flats.
DA party insiders familiar with the investigation of Booi say it concerns possible violations of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
Party insiders said the party’s leaders felt they had to let Booi go as soon they discovered the nature of the SAPS probe.
Attempts to reach Booi at numbers registered to him were unsuccessful. He has been removed from the city's mayoral committee and suspended from all DA party activities.
Asked about the contracts that were awarded to alleged underworld bosses, a spokesperson for the City of Cape Town said only: “The city will respond in due course.”
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