‘There’s turmoil on the top’: Mark Lifman's murder signals upheaval in Cape Town’s organised crime landscape
The two people initially taken in for questioning over the murder of alleged underworld boss Mark Lifman are expected to appear in the George Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Lifman was shot dead at George’s Garden Route Mall on Sunday, where he was reportedly ambushed by gunmen wielding assault rifles.
It was reported that the suspects fled the scene in a white VW Golf with fake licence plates.
“Two suspects were questioned and are now charged with the murder of a 57-year-old man outside the Garden Route Mall in George on Sunday morning.
“The pair, aged 37 and 53, were apprehended near Uniondale on Sunday afternoon and the vehicle they were travelling in was also confiscated.
“After the suspects fled the crime scene, police, law-enforcement officials, security companies and crime watch groups were activated to be on the lookout for the suspects in the region.
“As a consequence, the pair was arrested a couple of hours later,” said police spokesperson Andre Traut.
Lifman was one of three suspects, arrested in December 2020 in connection with the murder of “steroid king” Brian Wainstein, in August 2017.
His co-accused included Jerome “Donkie” Booysen and William “Red” Stevens who was killed in 2021. Lifman was set to return to the Western Cape High Court on Monday, alongside Booysen on a slew of charges.
The State said Lifman’s death would not deter their case. “The State will hand up the death certificate and will continue with the prosecution of the remaining accused.
“The State will not stop the prosecution or withdraw charges against any of the remaining accused following the incident,” NPA spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila said.
Criminologist, Simon Howell said: “Mark Lifman was a feature of the Cape Town underground for many many years and had crossed many paths with many dangerous people, it surprises me he managed to not get shot for this long.
Ultimately though, I sense that he crossed too many people’s paths considering the court case, his paths caught up with him.”
He added that Lifman’s death was an indication that there’s turmoil “at the top”.
“It indicates there’s a lot of turmoil at the top. Nafiz Modack is in prison, Lifman is dead, Jerome Booysen has also got issues, so the criminal justice system is slowly catching up with individuals at the top. At the lower levels the fragmentation of the gangs is catching up with a lot of people.
There’s a lot of power shifts but there’s also a lot of complexity to organised crime, the way in which it’s changing in Cape Town at the moment.
It’s important to understand that one person’s death will not necessarily change the entire system.
It may create a power vacuum or a different dynamic but ultimately these things will take time before we see what the changes will be,” said Howell.
Crime activist Dean Ramjoomia said: “Where we are at, things are definitely going to escalate on the ground.
“Very key people are being executed. There has never been as many gang leaders killed as has been the case in the last three to four months.
“The dysfunction is also historic and the state has always been responsive, they wait till someone is killed then they react.
“There is no investment in terms of healing to restore the societal dysfunction in our communities.
Politics benefits from societal dysfunction so it is often used as a distraction method. Our families, our men need healing.”
Cape Times