DA’s suspended Malusi Booi ‘fears for his life’ after police probe into alleged gangster links

Suspended DA member Malusi Booi says he fears for his life after it was revealed in March that the police are investigating links between him and underworld figures.  

“My life is seriously under threat,” he said. “People will think that I have something against them, which I don’t. Those who have done this have put my life in danger [based] on allegations that do not exist.”  

By people, Booi said he was referring to alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield, alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome “Donkie” Booysen and all those alleged to have given him cash.  

Daily Maverick reported that in a police statement on 15 March — the day Booi’s office was raided – it was alleged that he “received gratification in the form of cash” and that “these cash payments are paid by notorious individuals in the criminal underworld … to facilitate the provision of information regarding the City’s tenders in the Human Settlements Directorate”. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: SAPS investigating allegations Cape Town mayco member Malusi Booi ‘took cash from gangsters’

Next week will mark two months since the police’s Commercial Crimes Unit raided Booi’s office and confiscated his electronic devices.  

He was subsequently suspended as a mayoral committee member for human settlements following the raid. A week later, he was fired and remained an ordinary councillor. The DA also suspended him from party activities pending an investigation into his conduct.  

Read more in Daily Maverick: Cape Town mayor fires Malusi Booi from mayoral committee after update from SAPS

Read more in Daily Maverick: DA’s suspended Malusi Booi is back in Cape Town council — but whom is he representing? 

Booi has not faced any criminal charges, yet, and says he last saw the police when they confiscated his electronic devices, which they had still not returned despite promising to do so within seven days of the raid on his office.

Explaining why he had kept quiet for so long, Booi said he had hoped that the police would finally charge him and he would then get a chance to clear his name.  

He said his legal team has tried to get the police to expedite the investigation or at least provide him with an update but this had failed. 

In April, Daily Maverick revealed that the City of Cape Town, via the Western Cape government, was still doing business with Glomix House Brokers — its director is Stanfield’s wife Nicole Johnson. Neither Johnson nor Stanfield has been convicted in relation to gangsterism. 

In a Western Cape High Court judgment from 2020, about a double murder, it was alleged that “the Stanfield family … control the 28s in the Valhalla Park area”. (While Johnson is not mentioned in the judgment, Stanfield is.)

‘I am being victimised’

“To paint me like I have met people like Booysen, I have never met the guy let alone spoken to him. Nicole has been employed by the City [of Cape Town] long before I started in the city.   

“I have done lifestyle audits twice in the city. The first one I volunteered for it to be done because I have nothing to hide. I am being victimised by the system, there is no fairness in the system. There is no justice for me.”  

Last year, the municipality conducted lifestyle audits on all 11 mayoral committee members. The audit did not identify any significant risks or red flags. 

Booi said there were no benefits anyone would receive from giving him money because he does not award tenders, and only performs an oversight role. 

Extortion by gangs, which is holding back housing projects in Cape Town is on the rise, while the security budget has been topped up by R15-million to protect construction sites. A R1-million reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of the gunmen who killed city official Wendy Kloppers in Delft on 16 February.  

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said Booi’s situation was not ideal. 

“[The police] have to do their job and I have to do my job. Mine is to protect the integrity of the city and our government and to make sure that the public knows that we might not be immune [to fraud and corruption] but when we find it or information is brought to our attention we take serious action.”  

He said while he sympathises with Booi, he still believes firing Booi from the mayoral committee was the right decision based on what the police had told him. 

Booi said his troubles started when he went to Cape Agulhas to share with fellow DA members his ambition to contest for the position of provincial leader at the provincial congress in November. He said he was warned that people who felt threatened by him would tarnish his name and prevent him from participating in party activities.  

“The investigation was to paint a picture that I cannot be trusted. If the suspension is lifted, I will go ahead and launch my campaign,” he said. DM