Suspects arrested for hit on 'underworld' figure

Prominent underworld figure Mark Lifman (57) was shot dead in the Western Cape on Sunday. Legalbrief reports that Lifman was charged with the 2017 murder of steroids businessman Brian Wainstein. He was due to appear in the Western Cape High Court today for the Wainstein murder trial. ‘The circumstances of the incident is now the subject of a police investigation, and more information cannot be disclosed at this stage,’ said police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut. The Knysna-Plett Herald reports that two suspects were arrested near Uniondale shortly after the murder. Lifman, who was planning to play golf, was alone when he was shot. . According to a Cape Argus source ,the hitmen were armed with assault rifles and opened fire as Lifman walked across the parking lot to his Ford Ranger bakkie. 'They were driving a white VW Golf with cloned number plates. He was walking and they went towards him and shot about five shots and he died on the scene. They raced off and cops became aware of the number plate and started tracking the vehicle. This is when they caught the two white males in Uniondale,' said a source. Police have taken possession of video footage showing Lifman's final moments. Several marked police cars were stationed outside Lifman’s Fresnaye home last night.

– Cape Argus

Full News24 report

Full Knysna-Plett Herald report

The assassination heralds the seismic realignment of the Western Cape underworld. Wainstein, known as the Steroid King, was shot dead in his bed in his home in Constantia. When Lifman was arrested in December 2020, he was detained along with Jerome ‘Donkie’ Booysen and William Stevens. The Daily Maverick reports that Stevens was reputed to have been one of the most seasoned 27s gangsters in the Western Cape. He was shot dead in early 2021, about a week before he was due back in court with Lifman and Booysen in connection with Wainstein’s murder. Lifman was involved in private security in Cape Town. In the 1990s, Cyril Beeka, a rumoured apartheid state operative, ran a security outfit in Cape Town, which some police officers maintained was an extortion racket linked to the Italian Mafia. Police investigators said Beeka used mobs of men to force his ‘security’ services on establishments. Beeka was murdered in 2011. Lifman, Booysen and another associate of theirs, Andre Naude (also an accused in the Wainstein murder case), subsequently focused on private security focused on Cape Town’s city centre but also extending further afield.

Full Daily Maverick report