Maverick News

Mark Lifman’s murder underscores the ‘grip’ of organised crime on police and private security

The Private Security Industry Regulatory Authorities 2024 2025 annual performance plan gives a breakdown of security officers around the country.

By Caryn Dolley

7 Nov 2024

The two suspects arrested after the assassination of Cape Town murder accused Mark Lifman have combined ties to policing and the company PPA Security. Meanwhile, suspicions of thugs infiltrating cops and private security firms are prevalent in South Africa’s gangsterism capital, the Western Cape.

If you do not trust the South African Police Service (SAPS) or want to bolster your safety – or a combination thereof – you might want to turn to private security.

But the recent assassination of Cape Town murder accused Mark Lifman has again highlighted a concerning Catch-22.

There are suspicions that criminals have infiltrated both private and public security structures meant to ensure our safety, thereby exposing us to danger.

Bouncers have been killed before in incidents understood to be linked to industry ructions.

Lifman, who was murdered on 3 November 2024 in the Western Cape town of George, was involved in private security.

Read more: ‘If ever I encounter a bad guy, I’d want it to be me’ – murdered Mark Lifman

And it has since emerged that the two suspects arrested in connection with his killing provided services to a company, Professional Protection Alternatives, better known as PPA Security or PPA.

The company has a prominent presence in Cape Town’s upmarket Atlantic Seaboard suburbs and was familiar to Lifman.

https://www.facebook.com/ppa247/videos/481391426600495/?rdid=Kdh4c2qy3dHRLufk#

PPA has launched an internal investigation following the two arrests for the Lifman murder.

Aside from private security links, one of the two murder suspects also has former ties to police.

The suspects have not had a chance to comment on the issues as they remain in custody.

It is common knowledge that SAPS officers have been arrested for various types of crimes.

Read more: Cape Town cops arrested for Mandrax smuggling and abalone hijacking worth R500,000

This pairs with increasing suspicions that some individuals are manipulating private security services or that they are using certain companies as fronts.

To make this matter extra concerning is that such suspicions are concentrated in South Africa’s gangsterism capital, the Western Cape.

Read more: Gangstas’ Paradise – how the ‘bullet rule’ of gangsters is strangling the life out of SA’s Mother City

The country’s private security sector is massive, and the number of active officers in the country is more than triple SAPS employees.

However, the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira) has conceded that it has only one inspector for every 200 security companies, which suggests that thorough regulation cannot be enforced.

This is where criminals can capitalise.

Lifman’s murder

The scene outside a mall in George, Western Cape, where Mark Lifman was gunned down on 3 November 2024. (Photo: Supplied)

Mark Lifman crime network Mark Lifman outside the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town, South Africa, on 21 October 2022. Lifman was facing charges in the murder of Steroid King Brian Wainstein. (Photo: Jaco Marais / Die Burger / Gallo Images)

Aspects of private security can be linked to Lifman’s assassination.

He was previously involved in the industry in Cape Town, and this connected him to various other individuals tailed by controversy or, in some cases, bullets.

At the time of his killing, Lifman was on trial for the August 2017 murder of international steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein, also known as the Steroid King.

Read more: Charges against murdered ‘Steroid King’ reveal a global web of crime cases

Wainstein was shot dead in his bed in his home in the upmarket Cape Town suburb of Constantia.

He had been wanted in the United States.

Among Lifman’s co-accused in that trial were his associates, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen and Andre Naude, as well as a former policeman, Wayne Henderson.

Around 2011 and 2012, Lifman, Booysen and Naude were involved in a security company that Hawks officers promptly shut down over allegations it was not registered with Psira.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGJQ2DYAgjw

Both Booysen and Naude were previously, on separate occasions, wounded in shootings.

Hours after Lifman’s assassination last Sunday, two suspects, Johannes Jacobs and Gert Bezuidenhout, were arrested in connection with the case.

They appeared briefly in the George Magistrate’s Court this week and are expected back again on Tuesday.

This is where PPA crops up.

PPA Security

Mark Lifman crime network The PPA Security logo.(Photo: PPA website)

Eyewitness News reported that Western Cape Police Commissioner Thembisile Patekile said one of the accused was previously a member of the police’s special task force.

Patekile was also quoted saying: “But he’s been away from the police for some time and what we believe is that he’s worked for PPA Security in Cape Town; that’s what we know for now."

PPA has been the focus of news reports before – about six years ago members of the company were accused of moving visitors off Cape Town’s Clifton Beach at the request of wealthy residents there.

Read more: As SA policing fails, private security steps in — but at a cost

A presentation on behalf of PPA to Parliament in 2019 said the company denied the accusations: “PPA members at no stage directly or indirectly informed or instructed any beach goer or community member that the beach is closed or closes at 20h00…

“In conclusion, this is clear evidence that PPA does not operate unlawfully or outside their scope of powers and only acted in order to assist SAPS and Law Enforcement upon their request.”

Earlier this year, in April, a Western Cape High Court judgment also saw a previous search warrant directed at PPA, one of two applicants in a case involving allegations relating to issues including illicit cigarettes, being set aside.

“In my view, the impression or insinuation created … that the applicants are involved in gangsterism, and illicit cigarette smuggling is not borne out by the facts,” that judgment said.

Back to Lifman.

Suspects and ‘services rendered’

It was previously reported that he said he knew PPA’s head Alwyn Landman (who had denied associating with Lifman) because he once tried to create a security company with Landman, but that Landman went on to form PPA.

So, when it emerged earlier this week that Jacobs and Bezuidenhout were arrested for Lifman’s murder and that one or both may be associated with PPA, it appeared that Lifman might be connected, through his previously claimed dealings with the head of that company, to his alleged killer or killers.

It turns out Jacobs and Bezuidenhout had ties to PPA.

This week, in an email response to Daily Maverick questions with no name attributed to it, PPA acknowledged that both men had provided services to the company.

However, the company made it clear that neither had been employed there.

Bezuidenhout had been contracted to PPA and this agreement had since been cancelled.

Read more: Senzo Mchunu’s push for SAPS-private security alliance a possible breakthrough, but not without hazards

“He rendered security services to PPA as an independent contractor,” PPA’s response said.

“At the time of the alleged incident, he was contracted to PPA but a decision was taken to terminate his contract with immediate effect.

“He was not on duty at the time of the alleged incident.”

As for Jacobs, PPA’s response said he had “rendered ad hoc training services, predominantly for riot and crowd management, to PPA as an independent contractor”.

It added: “It is our understanding that he renders such training services to other companies as well.”

PPA’s response said that at the time of the “alleged incident,” presumably Lifman’s murder, Jacobs had not been contracted by the company.

Internal investigation

Its response said that when it heard that Jacobs and Bezuidenhout had been arrested, it was decided that a full-scale internal investigation would be conducted.

“Should it be determined that any of PPA’s employees have any involvement in this alleged incident, they will be immediately suspended, and disciplinary action will be taken against them,” it added.

“In the case of independent contractors, their contract will be terminated with immediate effect.”

Read more: Mark Lifman murdered — the life and alleged crimes of the controversial Cape businessman

This week claims in other media were made that PPA’s founder might have been connected to what happened to Lifman, but PPA countered: “The founder of PPA was not involved in the alleged incident.”

It added: “PPA strongly condemns any criminal conduct on the part of any employee and independent contractor and adopts a zero-tolerance policy in this regard.”

One inspector for 200 companies

Psira is meant to oversee private security companies. But by its own admission it is overwhelmed.

Minutes of a September meeting on a Psira report to Parliament said: “The Authority indicated that regular inspections are conducted but is hampered by a lack of sufficient capacity.

“The current capacity ratio of Psira is one inspector to 200 security companies (1:200) whereas the ideal would be 1:110 companies.”

Read more: Cops target Cape Town security firm accused of having another business’s shotguns and pistols

Psira’s 2024/2025 performance plan also points to how expansive the industry is.

It said there were more than 2.8 million security officers registered in South Africa.

Of those, more than a half a million – 577,444 – were actively employed.

To put that into perspective, SAPS’ latest annual report said it had a total of 184,106 employees.

The number of actively employed private security officers in South Africa is therefore more than triple the number of police service employees.

Lifman murder The Private Security Industry Regulatory Authorities 2024 2025 annual performance plan gives a breakdown of security officers around the country. (Image: Psira)

Bouncer battles and gangs

In a 2017 Cape Town court case relating to an unlicensed firearm and private security, a police investigator had testified that some Psira inspectors were worried that if they took on certain security companies, they would be killed.

That case fit into a matrix of matters linked to nightclub security in Cape Town at the time.

During that same period, police investigators had alleged that Lifman was heading a faction of individuals who controlled nightclub security operations in Cape Town for years.

The rivals of this so-called Lifman faction, as police investigators alleged, included organised crime accused Nafiz Modack, who is now on trial for crimes including the 2020 assassination of policeman Charl Kinnear.

Read more: Danger, drama and deception — Charl Kinnear’s blueprint for his own assassination trial

Among Modack’s co-accused in the Kinnear trial is a former cop, Ashley Tabisher, who faces charges relating to corruption.

Police said the so-called Lifman group and the Modack group had fought each other to dominate Cape Town’s nightclub security sector and that this had sparked violence from around 2017.

Getting guns

Daily Maverick previously reported on a failed Western Cape High Court application to have firearms confiscated by the police returned to a company, ASP Elite Protection Services CC.

That November 2020 judgment had referenced, among others, Modack.

It said firearm permits had been given to him.

Read more: Gun-running cops, guards and thugs

“One of the permit books… was used exclusively to issue permits to Modack… for the possession of the Glock…

“According to these records, permits were issued to Modack on eight occasions,” the judgment alleged.

“Modack is not a security officer employed by [ASP Elite Protection Services], is not in possession of a competency certificate, and is not registered as a security service provider with Psira.”

This journalist’s book, The Enforcers – Inside Cape Town’s Deadly Nightclub Battles, details other private security skirmishes and loopholes.

A section states: “Several sources noted that starting a private security business was a convenient way to access firearms for nefarious means under a legitimate guise.

“A gang boss could task those without a criminal record to submit the paperwork to Psira in order to register a security company, and once this was taken care of, the boss’s proxy could apply for firearms licences, motivating that these would be used in carrying out official services for the company.”

Concerning common threads

Zoom in on issues surrounding Lifman and Modack and a worrying picture, with overlapping elements, emerges.

At the time of his murder, Lifman was clearly involved in private security and was on trial for an assassination alongside, among others, a police officer.

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

The two men accused in connection with Lifman’s murder also have ties to private security and one has links to the police service.

As for Lifman’s alleged rival, Modack, he was also involved in private security and is on trial for an assassination alongside, among others, a police officer. DM

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