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How cops are dismantling The Firm’s ‘gang empire’ and developing a mega court case

How cops are dismantling The Firm’s ‘gang empire’ and developing a mega court case
Charl Kinnear was assassinated outside his home in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town. (Photo: Noor Slamdien)
Caryn Dolley
By Caryn Dolley
30 Jun 2024
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What started in 2023 with the arrests of The Firm gang boss accused Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson has developed into a widespread police takedown with at least 17 suspects detained in Cape Town over 10 months.

Investigations into crimes ranging from murder to fraud, and with tracks from construction sites to upmarket homes, have developed into a mega court case in Cape Town, with alleged gang boss Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson at the centre of it.

Starting with the couple, over 10 months the police have made at least 17 arrests. These stretch to the restaurant and construction sectors, as well as to other private businesses and even Cape Town’s municipality.

Some of the arrested suspects are connected to other criminal cases, highlighting how seemingly isolated violence and different forms of lawbreaking are tightly connected, especially in South Africa’s gangsterism capital, the Western Cape.

Business deals and gang suspicions


Stanfield and Johnson were arrested at their home in the upmarket Cape Town suburb of Constantia in 2023 on charges relating to car theft.

Shortly afterwards, three other accused – Denver Booysen, Johannes Abrahams and Jose Brandt – joined them in the dock.

This week that case grew significantly to include eight others accused of crimes including high-profile shootings that have rattled Cape Town over several years.

The State alleges they are all part of The Firm, a gang group with a strong 28s membership, and they therefore face charges under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

A police investigator, during related court proceedings, previously identified Stanfield as The Firm’s boss. Stanfield’s uncle Colin, who died in 2004, was once suspected of leading the gang.

A joint amaBhungane-Daily Maverick investigation recently revealed that Stanfield and Johnson raked in millions of rands through involvement in the construction of the R3-billion King Air Industria project adjoining Cape Town International Airport.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Alleged gang boss goes big — Ralph Stanfield ‘in bed’ with Old Mutual, Atterbury 

While it is not illegal to do business with criminally accused individuals, the situation hints at how legitimate businesses may sometimes contribute to organised crime.

steroid king wainstein lifman booysen From left: Alleged gang boss Jerome Booysen. (Photo: Supplied) | ‘Steroid King’ Brian Wainstein was murdered in 2017. (Image: Interpol) | Businessman Mark Lifman. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Adrian de Kock).


Cape Town housing ‘capture’


This week, when Stanfield, Johnson and the three others previously accused alongside them appeared in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court in the car theft case, they did so along with eight others who had recently been charged.

The group faces more than 30 counts of crime.

Among the eight recently charged was Imtiyaaz Sedick who was arrested on Tuesday, 25 June, and Warren Dennis who handed himself over to police the previous day.

Dennis was charged in connection with the February 2023 murder of City of Cape Town official Wendy Kloppers who was gunned down in Delft at the Symphony Way Housing Project building site.

City manager Lungelo Mbandazayo previously told IOL she was killed after the City refused to give in to gangsters who were demanding work from contractors at the housing project.

On Thursday, speaking outside the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court where Stanfield and his co-accused appeared, the City’s human settlements mayoral committee member, Carl Pophaim, told journalists: “Let us make no mistake that the murder [of Kloppers]… and these broader investigations are part of one singular thing – an attempt to capture Human Settlements and construction in Cape Town.”



Johnson’s company, Glomix House Brokers, which National Treasury has since blacklisted, previously did work for the City.

This week, also appearing in the dock for the first time alongside Stanfield, Johnson and co, were Jonathan Cloete, Shakeel Pelston and Abraham Wilson.

They collectively face charges for crimes including the February 2021 murder of William “Red” Stevens, reputed to have been one of the most seasoned 27s gangsters.

Nafiz Modack, Charl Kinnear Nafiz Modack in the Western Cape High Court on 7 May 2024, where he and 14 co accused face various charges including the murder of police Lieutenant Colonel Charl Kinnear and the assassination attempt on Cape Town lawyer William Booth. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Theo Jeptha)


Bullets


Stevens was killed outside his Kraaifontein home ahead of him standing trial for the August 2017 killing of international steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein, also known as the Steroid King.

Wainstein was murdered in his Constantia home – the same suburb in which Johnson and Stanfield were arrested in 2023.

Among those now on trial in connection with Wainstein’s assassination is alleged Sexy Boys gangster Jerome “Donkie” Booysen.

Read more in Daily Maverick: The wild, wild Cape – Shooting of a ‘rival’s’ son plus ‘Nafiz Modack enterprise’s’ 3,000 charges

This loops back to the developing Stanfield- and Johnson-focused case.

Other charges against co-accused Cloete, Pelston and Wilson include the attempted murder of Jerome Booysen’s son, Joel.

Joel was shot at in March 2023 in the Cape Town suburb of Belhar and about two months later was wounded in a shooting in Green Point.

This is the growing criminal accusation matrix that Stanfield and Johnson now find themselves in.

Guns, Ayepyep and theft


They are no strangers to legal issues.

Together with several others, they were previously arrested in a case stemming from 2014 and involving allegations that three (now former) Central Firearm Registry police officers, based in Gauteng, created fraudulent gun licences for them.

That case, in which Dennis is also an accused, is ongoing.

Stanfield and Johnson, while out on bail in that gun matter, faced other accusations. Some involved the Ayepyep Lifestyle Lounge in Cape Town.

Cape Town city manager Lungelo Mbandazayo. (Photo: Gallo Images / ER Lombard)



Kagiso Setsetse, who previously co-owned the venue, claimed Stanfield and Johnson, its general manager, were trying to dominate it.

Stanfield made counter-accusations.

In a June 2023 criminal complaint to the police, Setsetse also listed Dennis as being part of that matter.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Legal settlement – Cape Town luxury venue Ayepyep to reopen after gang and extortion accusations spat

Setsetse subsequently sold his shares in Ayepyep Cape Town, resulting in half the business belonging to Stanfield’s mother-in-law, Barbara Johnson.

Ayepyep reopened in September 2023, and shortly afterwards Stanfield and Johnson were arrested in the car theft case.

They have been kept in custody since then – during which time the series of arrests allegedly linked to them have been made, culminating in various accused joining them in the dock last week.

That case is expected to resume in September.

Peripheral arrests


There have been other arrests linked to Stanfield and Johnson.

In April his brother Kyle was taken into custody after Stanfield allegedly asked him to remove items that police planned to seize for their car theft investigation.

Last month Barbara Johnson, along with Suraya Manuel, an accountant, and Glomix’s quantity surveyor, Phakamisa Nondabula, were arrested in a case linked to Kyle Stanfield’s.

That matter, in which they were released on bail, is expected to resume in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court next month.

So, what started with the arrests of Stanfield and Johnson in 2023 has quickly developed into a web of claims and accusations reaching into different spheres of organised crime – and business.

And related incidents stretch across various Cape Town suburbs, from historic gang hotspots into the city centre.

Daily Maverick understands more arrests could be made.

Ex-cops face death threats Kinnear Charl Kinnear was assassinated outside his home in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town. (Photo: Noor Slamdien)


Trials and factions


The case against Stanfield and co has become one of several major court matters, linked to an even broader mass of crime, playing out in Cape Town.

Each of these cases focuses on a group of alleged criminal associates and, based on what has emerged during previous court proceedings, these groups are apparent rivals.

In the developing Stanfield and co case, among the collective charges in it are the ones relating to the 2021 murder of Stevens, who was killed before going on trial in the Wainstein assassination case alongside Booysen, as well as the attempted murder of Booysen’s son, Joel.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Making sense of Cape Town’s confusing rush of underworld cases

This implies that those now facing accusations in the Stanfield case, in which reference to The Firm and the 28s gang has been made, were against Booysen and men allegedly affiliated with him, a case in which the 27s gang has been referenced.

In the Wainstein murder case, among those also on trial in the Western Cape High Court with Booysen are organised crime accused Mark Lifman and Andre Naude.

They, in turn, as alleged by police investigators, were against another group of organised crime suspects including Nafiz Modack.

Modack, along with several others, is also on trial in the Western Cape High Court in connection with various crimes, including the September 2020 assassination of policeman Charl Kinnear.

In that trial, reference has been made to the Terrible West Siders gang.

These three different court matters running in Cape Town – the one in which Stanfield is a key accused, the Wainstein assassination trial, and the Modack case – point to allegedly rival gang-linked groups that police have effectively accused of holding the city ransom. 

Staring down the barrel of years of crime


June 2014


The Firm and 28s gang boss accused Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson are among a group arrested over allegations that Gauteng cops created fraudulent gun licen-ces for them. The charges are provisionally withdrawn and later reinstated.

July 2017


Stanfield is wounded in a shooting in Johannesburg.

August 2017


Brian Wainstein, also known as the Steroid King, is murdered in his Cape Town home.

March 2019


It emerges that Johnson’s company, Glomix House Brokers, has a City of Cape Town tender to build houses in Valhalla Park. Residents express concerns.

February 2021


William “Red” Stevens, reputed to have been one of the most seasoned 27s gangsters and set to stand trial for Wainstein’s August 2017 assassination, is murdered.

September 2021


Faizel Adams, a police officer based at Parliament, is shot dead. His cousin, Ismail Abrahams, is later also murdered.

February 2023


City of Cape Town official Wendy Kloppers is murdered at a housing site.

March 2023

Malusi Booi is fired from the post of mayoral committee member for human settlements after his City of Cape Town office is raided as part of a corruption investigation in which Stanfield’s name crops up. There are attempts to kill two men in Somerset West. Joel Booysen, the son of alleged Sexy Boys gangster Jerome Booysen, is shot at.

May 2023


Joel Booysen is wounded in a shooting.

August 2023


Kagiso Setsetse, co-owner of the Ayepyep Lifestyle Lounge in Cape Town, publicly claims that Stanfield and Johnson are trying to dominate it.

September 2023


Setsetse sells his shares in Ayepyep, so half the business belongs to Johnson’s mother, Barbara Johnson. Stanfield and Johnson are arrested in a car theft case. Three others – Denver Booysen, Johannes Abrahams (also an accused in the gun fraud case) and Jose Brandt – face charges with them.

December 2023


The City of Cape Town blacklists companies linked to Johnson, including Glomix. National Treasury subsequently also blacklists Glomix.

April 2024


Stanfield’s brother Kyle is arrested in a defeating the ends of justice case over allegations that he was asked to remove items that police planned to seize in their Stanfield investigation.

May 2024


Barbara Johnson along with Suraya Manuel, an accountant, and Glomix’s quantity surveyor, Phakamisa Nondabula, are arrested in a case linked to Kyle Stanfield.

June 2024


Jonathan Cloete, Shakeel Pelston, Abraham Wilson, Warren Dennis (also an accused in the gun fraud case), Imtiyaaz Sedick, Michael Morris, Chevonne McNabb and Sharazaadht Essop are arrested and added to the Stanfield car theft case. They collectively face charges including for the February 2021 killing of Stevens, the September 2021 murders of Adams and his cousin, the 2023 attempted murders of Joel Booysen and the two other men, and the February 2023 murder of Kloppers. This means Stanfield and Johnson are now facing charges in a major organised crime matter. DM

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This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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