Web of court cases linked to murdered cop Kinnear likely to unleash more police corruption claims

Western Cape SAPS Major-General Jeremy Vearey. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

By Caryn Dolley

7 Jan 2021

Several court cases expected to unfold in Cape Town and Johannesburg in 2021 may add to mounting claims of police corruption and reveal ties to underworld activities. The backdrop to these cases is Police Minister Bheki Cele’s recent vow to clamp down on crimes that undermine the state.

Towards the end of January, a case involving allegations that a hand grenade was discovered outside policeman Charl Kinnear’s home is expected to resume in court.

In this case, a suspect, Amaal Jantjies, has launched a bail application during which she has made startling claims against one of the Western Cape’s top cops tasked with tackling gangsterism.

This case is one of five court cases – four of which are playing out in Cape Town and one in Johannesburg – with possible links to underworld dealings set to develop this year.

Each one of these five cases also has ties to Kinnear, who was investigating several high-profile crimes and suspects, including fellow police officers, when he was assassinated outside his Bishop Lavis home in Cape Town on 18 September 2020.

Case 1 – hand grenade matter

In the case now focused on Jantjies, she was arrested with two others in connection with a hand grenade that was allegedly found outside Kinnear’s home in November 2019, when he had been under police protection that was subsequently withdrawn.

During her bail application in this case, Jantjies testified that the head of the Western Cape’s Anti-Gang Unit, Major-General Andre Lincoln, with Kinnear, who had been working as a member of the unit, had wanted her and a co-accused’s help to set up a hit.

The state has not yet had a chance to question her on these extreme claims as these court proceedings were postponed in December.

Lincoln’s version of events has therefore not yet been detailed in court.

Jantjies is expected back in the Parow Regional Court in a fortnight.

Case 2 – Kinnear’s assassination

Zane Kilian faces charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and the unlawful interception of communications emanating from the assassination of Anti-Gang Unit Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear on 18 September 2020 in front of his home in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

Jantjies’ case resumes just ahead of Zane Kilian’s, the suspect arrested in connection with Kinnear’s murder.

Kilian is expected to appear in the Bellville Regional Court on 2 February where his bail application may proceed. He effectively tracked Kinnear’s cellphone via pinging it.

The gunman who pulled the trigger on Kinnear has not yet been arrested.

This murder case is especially pivotal because in December 2018, Kinnear had written a lengthy complaint to his bosses saying some Crime Intelligence-linked officers were working against him and some of his close colleagues. His complaint had further highlighted divisions within the police in the Western Cape and suspicions of some cops working with, not against, suspects.

Case 3 – the Steroid King murder plot

William Stevens, Mark Lifman and Jerome Booysen leave the Cape Town Magistrates' Court after being granted R100,000 bail each on 22 December 2020. (Photo: Gallo Images / Adrian de Kock)

A week after Kilian is set to appear in the Bellville Regional Court, three suspects – Mark Lifman, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen and William “Red” Stevens – are expected in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court.

Lifman, Booysen and Stevens were arrested on 22 December and released on R100,000 bail each that same day.

At the time Police Minister Bheki Cele said: “This is only the beginning of our efforts as the police to tighten the grip on these crimes committed by the underworld and (those who) run extortion rackets that undermine the state and threaten the livelihoods of local economies.”

The trio face charges in connection with the murder of Brian Wainstein, originally from Ireland and known as the Steroid King, who was shot dead in his Constantia home in Cape Town in August 2017.

At the time of his murder, Wainstein, who was closely connected to figures with suspected links to the city’s underworld, was wanted in the US on charges linked to drugs and steroids.

Four others had been previously arrested for the killing.

The names of the latest three suspects detained — Lifman, Booysen and Stevens — overlap with other issues Kinnear had been looking into.

Kinnear had been investigating suspects including Cape Town-based Nafiz Modack.

Case 4 – the cop gun licence racket

In June 2020, Modack and several police officers in Johannesburg were arrested on charges relating to fraud and firearms – in a nutshell, it was alleged the police officers were involved in fraudulently approving documents enabling suspects to obtain firearms.

This case – the investigation of which was headed by Lincoln – is reportedly set to resume in the Kempton Park Magistrates' Court in February.

Before this arrest, Modack and four other suspects, including Booysen’s brother Colin, had been detained in Cape Town in December 2017 on extortion charges, of which they were eventually acquitted.

Kinnear had been the investigating officer in this extortion matter, which tied into claims that Modack and his co-accused were trying to dominate Cape Town’s nightclub security industry, which Lifman and Booysen had been involved in.

During this court matter, Lifman and Booysen were portrayed as rivals of Modack and his four co-accused.

While Modack and his fellow accused were still detained in this case and applying for bail, Kinnear had testified during their application that Modack had claimed that Kinnear and his colleague, Major-General Jeremy Vearey, were on Lifman and Booysen’s payroll.

At the time, Vearey was heading a team investigating Modack.

Western Cape SAPS Major-General Jeremy Vearey. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

According to Kinnear’s testimony, Modack had also made claims that Vearey had worked with a gangster known as Red, which is Stevens’ alias, to have attorney Noorudien Hassan murdered in November 2016 – a killing that marked the start of a series of attacks on lawyers in Cape Town.

Modack’s claims did not result in any action being taken against Vearey and Kinnear.

During the extortion case bail application, Kinnear had also referred to Wainstein.

He had said that violence in clubs around Cape Town had started intensifying following an auction in the Cape Town suburb of Parow in March 2017.

Lifman had been present at the auction where a scuffle had broken out.

During this scuffle, Kinnear had testified, a man’s firearm had been stolen and this had resurfaced in the office of advocate Pete Mihalik, who was subsequently on the legal team defending Modack and his co-accused in the extortion case.

Kinnear claimed that Mihalik had offered to return the firearm in exchange for R20,000, which Wainstein had paid.

Mihalik was assassinated in the Cape Town suburb of Green Point on 30 November 2018.

He had worked closely with Hassan and both had been on the legal team representing a suspect in a separate case involving allegations that police officers had helped gangsters in the Western Cape obtain firearms.

Case 5 – attempted murder of an attorney

Meanwhile, when Modack had still been detained in early 2018 for the extortion case he was then central to, Lifman had been arrested for allegedly pointing a firearm during an incident in March 2017 (this coincided with the time the auction happened in Parow and there were suspicions Modack had lodged the firearm-pointing complaint against him).

But before even appearing in a courtroom, it had emerged that Lifman would not be charged and so he was released from custody.

Attorney William Booth, who was representing Lifman, said at the time that a group of police officers had not followed procedure when arresting him.

Booth, who has legally represented a vast array of suspects over the years, became the target of an attempted hit outside his Cape Town home in April 2020.

And this is where matters again loop back to Kinnear.

Five suspects subsequently faced charges for the attack on Booth. Late in 2020, it emerged that Kilian, accused in connection with Kinnear’s killing, would also be charged in connection with the attempted assassination of Booth. He had allegedly also pinged Booth’s cellphone.

Daily Maverick previously reported that Kilian’s bail application in the Booth case would only proceed after a ruling was made in his bail application, expected to proceed next month, in the Kinnear case.

If he is not granted bail in the Kinnear case, this would also apply to the Booth case. DM

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