Alleged Sexy Boys gang boss Jerome ‘ Donkie ‘ Booysen has challenged the admissibility of cellphone calls in the trial of slain steroid king Brian Wainstein, claiming the interception of his calls were unlawful.
Booysen and several others are on trial at the Western Cape High Court for the murder of Wainstein who was killed in his Constantia home in August 2017.
Booysen's defence lawyer, Advocate Amanda Nel, objected as the state sought to present information obtained by the Hawks during the interception of calls between Booysen, the late Mark Lifman, and Andre Naude.
This came amid a testimony by a retired Hawks detective who outlined surveillance carried out on some of the accused during April 2017.
Nel contended that this information was not relevant to the murder trial, as it stemmed from an application dating back to 2014 where the Hawks obtained information about alleged drug sales.
She said the original application cited the names of Lifman, Booysen and Kenneth Hansen and related to a different trial which has not yet commenced.
In that mater, Booysen, Hansen, Kristo Mariens, Clinton Langeveld, Jennen Jansen and Herbert Zoutman were slapped with 98 charges which include drug trafficking at nearly 100 properties and running the “Jerome Booysen Enterprise” between February 2013 and November 2017.
Nel told Judge Vincent Saldanha that as this trial had not yet started, the evidence, which consist of the same cellphone interceptions, had not yet been put to the test.
The feisty advocate said she would be raising objections on how the information was obtained, with regards to the provisions made by the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment (RICA) Bill.
She asked the Judge to take note of a recent request by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the National Assembly to consider that the draft law may be vulnerable to constitutional challenge.
"In the President’s view, the Bill remains unconstitutional insofar as decisions in terms of section 25A(2)(b) of the draft law may lead to a subject of surveillance never being notified of the surveillance,“ a statement from the Presidency said.