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‘Private militias’ warning after Cape Town taxi shootout

‘Private militias’ warning after Cape Town taxi shootout
Murdered Cape Town underworld figure Mark Lifman. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Jaco Marais)
Caryn Dolley
By Caryn Dolley
16 Jan 2025
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Twenty guns have been seized after a deadly shootout between security companies. And in another incident, seven security guards were robbed of their shotguns. These Cape Town cases shift the focus back to private security, a theme that surfaced in the Mark Lifman murder investigation.

Crimes linked to firearms and private security in Cape Town, one involving a murder and rival guard companies shooting at each other, have sparked concerns about “private militias” and the arming of gangsters.

The issue of firearms and private security has also surfaced in a high-profile assassination investigation into murder accused Mark Lifman’s killing in the Western Cape town of George on 3 November last year.

lifman Murdered Cape Town underworld figure Mark Lifman. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Jaco Marais)



As Daily Maverick has reported before, over several years in the runup to these matters there have been suspicions in Cape Town and further afield that some individuals are manipulating private security services, including the use of certain companies as fronts, in some cases to access firearms.

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

Meanwhile, the private security sector is booming and its watchdog, the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira), has already admitted it has “a lack of sufficient capacity” and that its funding model is not working to its advantage.

On Thursday, 16 January 2025, Daily Maverick asked Psira about the latest incidents in the Western Cape. Psira said it would issue a statement, but this had not been received by the time of publication.

847 guns lost or stolen


Based on Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s reply in December to Parliamentary questions, as of September last year, private security companies across South Africa had a collective 126,529 licensed firearms.

Of those, more than 77,000 were in Gauteng, followed by nearly 27,000 in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape third with 4,449 firearms.

Read more: South Africa’s gang capital and its murderous matrix

“No security company has been flagged for the purchasing of unauthorised firearms,” Mchunu’s response to the questions said.

He said security companies reported 847 firearms stolen or lost for the first semester of the 2024-2025 financial year.

However, other firearm problems have been picked up in the Western Cape.

‘Thinly veiled private militias’


On Thursday, City of Cape Town Safety and Security Mayoral Committee member JP Smith, in a statement reacting to a specific shooting, said he had spoken to Psira and had “suggested a revamp of [the watchdog] and better legislation to regulate private security companies that are thinly veiled private militias or involved in organised crime”. 

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

Psira has earlier addressed issues about its setup, with Parliament hearing in September that its “funding model based on annual fees and the growth of the private security industry in relation to employment levels has become redundant”.

It was therefore looking to change its funding model.

Parliament also heard that Psira had one inspector for every 200 security companies, whereas the ideal would be 1:110 companies.

Inspectors needed investigative powers to strengthen Psira’s authority.

Daily Maverick has previously reported that the number of actively employed private security officers in South Africa was more than triple the number of South African Police Service (SAPS) employees.

As of 2024, according to Psira, more than 2.8 million security officers were registered. Of those, more than half a million – 577,444 – were actively employed.

Private militias


Smith’s “private militias” comment concerned an incident on Tuesday, 14 January when a taxi guard was killed in a shootout that apparently involved two security companies in Nyanga, Cape Town.

Seven others were wounded.

Smith said that earlier this week an “early warning threat analysis” had been circulated among those involved in trying to curb the violence.



“Through this, priority areas were placed under close surveillance,” he said.

“Once our gunfire detection system identified and located shots being fired at the Nyanga taxi rank, resources were quickly dispatched and several persons taken into custody, with a large collection of firearms, including automatic assault rifles, that were seized.”

The firearms, he said, seemed to belong to two “security companies”.

“The manner and ability for a ‘legitimate’ security company to become registered is concerning – with one of these security companies being registered solely with the purpose to ‘protect its members from taxi violence’,” Smith said.

‘Like a warzone’


Western Cape SAPS Commissioner Thembesile Patekile was quoted on the SABC as saying the two rival security companies involved in the incident were apparently from KwaZulu-Natal.

He also said: “You can’t have two security companies fighting in a war like this, that was a direct shooting at each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73nJgAMn3OQ

“You can’t have that. So, in other words, we’ve got to now look back [at] who owns these companies. How is it possible that security companies can shoot at each other like you’re in a warzone?”

Thirteen rifles, seven handguns


Western Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa also said that the shooting was “believed to be intra-taxi association conflict”.

She said that following the incident, police officers “confiscated 13 rifles and seven handguns”. Nineteen security guards were also questioned as part of the investigation.

“Meanwhile, police have saturated the area and other hotspots with deployments as scores of commuters were left stranded as a result of the shooting incident,” Potelwa said.

“Engagement with Psira is ongoing in efforts to determine the legality of the firearms and the security companies they work for.”



On Thursday, 16 January, 18 suspects arrested in connection with the shooting appeared in the Athlone Magistrates’ Court. They face charges that include murder, attempted murder, public violence and discharging a firearm in a municipal area.

Shotguns and rubber bullet robbery


Daily Maverick has established that an incident involving firearms and private security happened in the early hours of Monday, 13 January, a day before the Nyanga taxi shooting.

It took place in Forest Village, which is in Cape Town’s Eerste River area. Gangs known to operate there include the Mobsters, which has hitmen linked to the 28s among its ranks, and the Terrible Josters.

Read more: Shake-up in SA’s gang capital — Latest shooting points to broader Cape Town gang ructions

Daily Maverick understands that seven security guards were stationed in a Nyala armoured vehicle around 2am when four suspects ambushed them and stole shotguns.

This caused concern among some with knowledge of the incident as they feared the weapons would end up with gangs and be used in crime.

One of the robbed guards was apparently hit with the butt of a gun while another was smacked.

Western Cape police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Pojie confirmed the incident to Daily Maverick. He said: “According to preliminary information, seven guards were stationary inside a Nyala when one disembarked. 

“It is alleged that moments later, four armed men accosted them and took seven shotguns, two bulletproof vest[s] and an assortment of rubber bullets at gunpoint.”

The guard who initially left the Nyala was assaulted.

Robbery investigation


Pojie said the motive for the incident appeared to be robbery. “The circumstances are being investigated,” he said. “We appeal to anyone with information to contact CrimeStop on 08600 10111.”

Daily Maverick understands that the security guards’ cellphones may have been confiscated as part of the police investigation into the robbery.

There was some uncertainty about which company had been targeted because on Wednesday, when Daily Maverick contacted the firm that sources identified, a person who worked there denied that firearms had been stolen from its guards.

Mark Lifman murder


Meanwhile, a pivotal murder investigation in the Western Cape also focuses on private security and firearms. It relates to the killing of murder accused Mark Lifman in the town of George on 3 November 2024.

In the years running up to his murder, Lifman’s name kept surfacing in connection with private security because of his ties to the industry. It was in this arena that issues surfaced of security companies, especially linked to aspects of nightclub security, being set up or used for nefarious reasons in Cape Town.

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

The two suspects arrested in connection with Lifman’s killing, Johannes Jacobs and Gert Bezuidenhout, were involved in private security. Their bail application proceeded in the George Magistrate’s Court on Thursday 16 January.

Both had provided services to 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.



During the first week of December, police raided PPA’s Cape Town headquarters.

Attorney Martin Hood, speaking on behalf of the company, had confirmed that the raid was related to the Lifman murder investigation. He said firearms had been seized for ballistic testing.

Hood made it clear that PPA was cooperating with police and that the services it provided were unaffected. DM

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