DURBAN, KwaZulu-Natal — Fifteen years after allegations first emerged against the Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit, writer and justice activist John Clarke says the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) faces a defining moment: act decisively to prosecute those implicated, or risk compounding what he calls an already deep injustice against the people of South Africa.
Clarke, a social worker who has spent years supporting whistleblowers within the criminal justice system, spoke candidly about the fallout from the Nkabinde Inquiry — a 51-day hearing originally convened to examine the disciplinary case against suspended Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Andrew Chauke. What began as an internal prosecutorial matter, Clarke explained, instead peeled back layers of alleged extrajudicial killings, cover-ups, and institutional failures tied to the Cato Manor unit, widely referred to as a “death squad.”
Having attended and documented every single day of the inquiry, Clarke compiled a comprehensive day-by-day record of the evidence presented. His forthcoming book distils that material into a narrative he says is aimed squarely at the South African media, asking how such a story could go “unverified, unchecked, and sidelined” for over a decade.
“The Truth Has Been the First Hostage”
Central to Clarke’s argument is what he describes as a deliberate construction of a false narrative around the unit’s operations. Referencing Noam Chomsky’s theory of “manufactured consent,” Clarke contended that powerful actors engineered public perception to shield those responsible. He drew a sharp distinction between conventional warfare and what he termed “lawfare.”
“In warfare, they say the truth is the first casualty,” Clarke said. “In lawfare, it becomes the first hostage. And what has been done over the last 15 years is that the truth has been held hostage by a false narrative.”
He was careful to note that he does not claim to possess the full truth, but insisted that the evidence led at the inquiry — particularly by two whistleblowers he has personally supported — points clearly toward where accountability must lie.
Whistleblowers Face Grave Danger
Those two whistleblowers are Aris Danikas, a former police reservist attached to the Cato Manor unit who now lives in Greece and testified via video link, and Shamila Williams, a former IPID investigator. Clarke recounted Williams’ extraordinary sacrifice during the inquiry: by day she gave evidence from her lawyer’s offices, and by night she slept on the floor of a hospital ward to care for a cognitively impaired seven-year-old orphan she hopes to eventually foster. She was unable to appear publicly for this discussion due to limited internet access.
Clarke revealed that his research has identified at least six individuals who possessed eyewitness accounts or incriminating evidence about the unit’s conduct and who have since been killed. With Advocate Chauke now cleared by the inquiry and the NDPP signalling an intention to reinstate charges, Clarke warned of an imminent threat to remaining witnesses.
“Now that Andrew Chauke has been exonerated and the national NDPP is looking to reinstate those charges, the obvious thing is that those who stand to be finally brought to justice are going to try and get rid of any evidence they can,” he said. “The NPA quickly needs to come and say what it’s going to do to protect whistleblowers and protect witnesses from being taken out. It has to happen quickly.”
The Killing of Kwazi Ndlovu
Among the most harrowing cases surfaced during the inquiry was the death of 16-year-old Kwazi Ndlovu. According to testimony, police officers searching for an escaped suspect stormed the wrong home in a Durban township, bursting through the door to find the teenager asleep in front of a television. They shot him dead and then allegedly attempted to plant evidence to fabricate a claim that they had been fired upon.
The killing was never properly prosecuted. Instead, Clarke said, the inquiry heard evidence of a concerted effort to push a false media narrative around the incident. The Ndlovu family ultimately secured a settlement through civil litigation — a process Clarke described as enormously costly and one that required the support of Amnesty International and the tireless advocacy of KwaZulu-Natal violence monitor Dr. Mary de Haas. He also paid tribute to journalist Karen Moore, who shone a light on the story 16 years ago.
Bongani Mkhize and the Taxi War
The inquiry also revisited the killing of taxi boss Bongani Mkhize, a figure from the KwaMaphumulo taxi association who had obtained a High Court interdict explicitly barring the Cato Manor unit from killing him. The interdict was ignored. Mkhize was killed after a high-speed pursuit through the streets of Durban.
Clarke pointed to Major General Johan Booysen, who commanded the unit, as the central figure who allegedly justified the unit’s lethal tactics. During the inquiry, evidence suggested Booysen operated under an “ends justify the means” philosophy, rationalising extrajudicial action as necessary to combat the violent taxi wars ravaging KwaZulu-Natal. The current chairperson of the taxi association volunteered testimony at the inquiry, delivering what Clarke called a “chilling” assessment: conditions in the industry have not improved since 2012.
Clarke stressed, however, that the constitution guarantees due process and the presumption of innocence, regardless of the circumstances. “There were genuine criminals who were taken out, perhaps,” he acknowledged. “But we’ve got a Bill of Rights. People need to have the presumption of innocence.”
Criticism of the NDPP and Institutional Failures
Clarke reserved pointed criticism for NDPP Advocate Shamilia Batohi, who led the prosecution during the inquiry. He alleged she was under pressure to satisfy certain constituencies and the media, and that she failed to read a critical email sent by Aris Danikas. Whether that failure was her own or the result of others within the NPA shielding her from the facts, Clarke said he could not determine, but he suspected internal manipulation designed to protect Booysen.
In his book, Clarke writes that the evidence presented to the panel pointed to Batohi having “wrongfully scapegoated” not only Advocate Chauke but other senior NPA prosecutors, including Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba. He described watching Batohi abandon the witness stand as deeply distressing, saying she “collapsed the case” and “jumped off the bridge before she came to it.”
“For goodness’ sake, may the new NDPP not rely on an accused to dictate prosecutorial decisions,” Clarke implored. “It must be done with absolute scrutiny.”
He also noted that several other prosecutors who attempted to pursue cases against the unit were sidelined and pushed out, suffering professional injustices of their own.
Apartheid-Era Echoes and a Call for Reckoning
Drawing a long historical arc, Clarke compared the Cato Manor revelations to the policing abuses of the 1980s in the Eastern Cape, a period he is documenting in a separate forthcoming book as a tribute to the late anti-apartheid lawyer Molly Blackburn. Forty years on, he argued, the same patterns of state violence persist.
Invoking Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Clarke warned: “If we do not exorcise the ghosts of the past, they will return to haunt us in the future. The ghosts have been exorcised by the Nkabinde panel, but they are roaming around. We need an authoritative response by people of integrity to do their jobs now, to make sure arrests happen immediately so that people are kept safe.”
He framed the current moment as an opportunity for institutional rebirth within the NPA, which is already under intense public scrutiny following the controversy surrounding Andrea Johnson and the Investigating Directorate. “This is a time for a reset,” Clarke said. “A time to begin saying: what does it mean for the NPA to act without fear, favour, or prejudice?”
Clarke acknowledged that the Justice Minister has been cautious not to appear to interfere in prosecutorial decisions — a restraint he credited as appropriate given the history of political interference. However, he insisted that the minister must ensure justice “follows its procedure and goes where the evidence lies.”
“Justice Delayed Becomes Injustice Compounded”
Clarke’s overarching message was one of urgency. The whistleblowers who waited 15 years to have their accounts heard at the Nkabinde Inquiry are now prepared to testify again at trial. But time, he warned, is not on their side.
“We cannot allow the grass to grow over this case. Now is the time, before people get silenced,” he said. “Justice delayed is justice denied. And when justice has been denied for so long, it becomes injustice compounded. We cannot let that happen.”
