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PPA Security raided — cops seize guns from Cape Town company in Mark Lifman murder investigation

SAPS Gang Unit members seen guarding the perimeter outside the PPA Tactical security company during a raid on Thursday morning, 05 December 2024. (Photo: David Harrison)

By Caryn Dolley

5 Dec 2024

Daily Maverick previously reported that the two suspects arrested for Cape Town murder accused Mark Lifman’s killing in November provided services to PPA Security. Now police have raided the company which says it is cooperating with cops.

Helmeted police officers, their faces covered with fabric, clutching firearms and wearing black bulletproof vests, were part of a raid targeting the Cape Town security company embroiled in the investigation into murder accused Mark Lifman’s killing.

The company says it is cooperating with cops and the security services it provides are unaffected.

At about 10.30am on Thursday, 5 December 2024, a convoy of South African Police Service (SAPS) officers, some in marked Anti-Gang Unit vans and others in an unmarked white vehicle, arrived at Professional Protection Alternatives.

PPA and police

The company is better known as PPA Security or PPA and its Cape Town head office is in a business park in the suburb of Brooklyn.

According to its website: “PPA Security is a specialist security company, supported with national and international experience.

“At PPA Security we pride ourselves to have the capability to adapt to the ever changing security environment and its unique challenges.”

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

It has been 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.

Lifman was fatally shot on 3 November 2024 in the Western Cape town of George.

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

Daily Maverick understands that investigations into his killing include looking into his possible involvement in security contracts linked to another province.

Two suspects – Johannes Jacobs and Gert Bezuidenhout – were arrested in connection with Lifman’s murder hours after it happened.

They were not employed by PPA but had provided services to the company.

A police Anti-Gang Unit vehicle outside PPA in Brooklyn during a raid on 5 December 2024. (Photo: David Harrison)

PPA An Anti-Gang Unit member outside PPA’s offices on 5 December 2024. (Photo: David Harrison)

Last month Daily Maverick reported that PPA launched an internal investigation following the arrest of the duo.

Now it is clear that aside from the internal investigation, PPA is also part of a police investigation.

Raid linked to Lifman murder

During Thursday’s raid, an Anti-Gang Unit van blocked off the road leading to the parking area in front of PPA.

Several armed officers stationed themselves outside the building, diverting and turning away some motorists and delivery bikes trying to access the vicinity right outside PPA.

At some point, several police vehicles left in a convoy while others remained at PPA.

Curious staff from neighbouring businesses watched from a distance.

An Anti-Gang Unit member receives evidence bags during a raid on the PPA security company in Brooklyn, Cape Town, on 5 December 2024. (Photo: David Harrison)

Police block vehicle access outside the PPA offices on Thursday. (Photo: David Harrison)

It is understood the raid is one of a few police actions that took place on Thursday related to issues linked to the Lifman murder investigation.

On Thursday afternoon, responding to Daily Maverick’s questions about the raid, Western Cape police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Pojie said: “What you are referring to is part of ongoing police investigation and this office will not be divulging any further detail in this regard.”

Attorney Martin Hood, speaking on behalf of PPA, confirmed that there had been a raid in terms of a search warrant. “The raid is related to the murder of Mark Lifman,” he said.

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

Hood added that PPA was not involved in the killing.

He made it clear that before Thursday’s raid, which he said was conducted professionally, PPA had been cooperating fully with police.

The company’s director also previously gave a statement to officers.

Firearms seized for testing

Hood said that during Thursday’s raid “police removed firearms for ballistic testing along with some statutory documents”.

He said that before the raid he had been in contact with the investigating officer and told him that PPA would hand over anything wanted if it had it.

“We’ve offered our full cooperation… We’re giving ongoing cooperation with police.”

Thursday’s raid would not affect the company’s operations.

“PPA is still fully open and rendering services,” Hood reiterated.

SAPS vehicles left in a convoy after raiding the PPA premises in Brooklyn. (Photo: David Harrison)

An Anti-Gang Unit member guards the perimeter outside PPA’s offices on Thursday. (Photo: David Harrison)

The police action targeting PPA on Thursday was not the first.

In April, a Western Cape High Court judgment referenced a search warrant from November in 2023 directed at PPA, one of two applicants in a case involving allegations relating to issues including illicit cigarettes.

That warrant was 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,” the April judgment said.

It also said that several compliance inspections had been conducted at PPA since 2018.

Members of the police’s Firearms, Liquor and Second-Hand Goods unit conducted the inspections for firearms control.

“Pursuant to the inspections, it was recorded in the SAPS report that no shortcomings were identified and that all registers were in place, and that everything was in order,” the judgment said.

Security and suspects

Thursday’s raid underscores separate suspicions that some individuals are manipulating private security services or are using certain companies as fronts, in some instances to access firearms.

These suspicions are especially concentrated in the Western Cape, South Africa’s gangsterism capital.

In Cape Town there have been fights to dominate nightclub security.

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

Police previously alleged that Lifman had headed a faction that once controlled nightclub security operations in the city.

They also alleged that Cape Town organised crime suspect Nafiz Modack, who went on to face charges relating to murder, had been a rival of Lifman’s and was also intent on dominating nightclub security.

Around the time that Modack started making his presence in that arena felt, in 2017, a police investigator testified in a Cape Town court case relating to an unlicensed firearm and private security.

That investigator had said that some inspectors with South Africa’s private security watchdog were worried that if they took on certain security companies, they would be killed.

Read more: The Enforcers – Inside Cape Town’s Deadly Nightclub Battles

The watchdog, the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSiRA), has before conceded that it has only one inspector for every 200 security companies.

This suggests that thorough regulation of the industry cannot be properly enforced.

Last month Daily Maverick asked PSiRA if it was aware of the Lifman murder case that involved two suspects who had been linked to private security.

PSiRA spokesperson Bonang Kleinbooi said: “Yes, we are aware and our Law Enforcement unit in [the] Western Cape is currently investigating.

“That’s all we can share for now.”

Police outside PPA during Thursday’s raid. (Photo: David Harrison)

Murder trial

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.

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

He had been wanted in the US.

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

Among Lifman’s co-accused in that trial were his associates, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen and Andre Naude.

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

Lifman and Naude had faced criminal charges over that matter but were acquitted.

They subsequently found themselves back in the dock together, along with other accused, in the Wainstein murder trial, during which Lifman himself was murdered. DM

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