Mark Lifman: Who is ‘Johnny Bacardi’ and what happened at James Small’s Café Caprice?

An ex-Springbok rugby star, the battle for “the doors and drugs” at Cape Town nightclubs, notorious gangs and the assassination of an international steroid dealer may seem totally unrelated.

But in the developing murder case of Cape Town underworld figure Mark Lifman, they serve to illustrate just how far and wide the intricate web of organised crime stretches in the Western Cape.

The suave property mogul and businessman – whose name continued to float to the surface of Cape Town’s murky underworld – was gunned down in the parking lot of the Garden Route Mall, in George, on Sunday morning.

Mark Lifman on trial for Steriod King murder

 Lifman’s hit-style killing comes while he was on trial – and out on bail – for the murder of “Steroid King” Brian Wainstein.

Wainstein was shot and killed in his Constantia home in August 2017.

Liftman was due back in the dock at the Western Cape High Court with his co-accused which include alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome “Donkie” Booysen and security boss André Naudé, on Monday for the murder trial of the international steroid smuggler.

The State alleges that Wainstein and Lifman clashed over property deals and a plan was then hatched to have Wainstein murdered.

James Dalton on Lifman hitlist?

The state also alleged that on 19 November 2017, at or near the exclusive Sea Point suburb of Fresnaye, gangster Fabian Cupido and Lifman conspired to murder several members of Lifman’s alleged underworld rivals, including Nafiz Modack, Booysen’s brother Colin, security company manager Carl Lakay, alleged Woodstock gang boss Ashley Fields, Emile Goodley, and former Springbok rugby star James “Bullet” Dalton.

The rugby bad boy has – according to his own admission in his biography, Bulletproof – rubbed shoulders with suspected underworld figures. Dalton has also had a few brushes with the law.

It is understood Dalton may have been acquainted with Wainstein.

Lifman murder suspects arrested near Uniondale

Lifman’s alleged killers – Johannes Jacobs, 53, and Gert “Johnny” Bezuidenhout, 37 – were arrested shortly after his assassination near Uniondale while travelling in the white VW Polo used in the drive-by shooting.

Their swift arrest came after the alarm was raised on a local farm security group when video footage from a farmer’s CCTV security camera of the duo stopping in a field to change their car’s number plates and clothes, surfaced.

On Tuesday morning, Jacobs and Bezuidenhout were charged with the premeditated murder of the 57-year-old suspected underworld linchpin during their first court appearance.

The two men’s request to be held in solitary confinement was denied.

Bezuidenhout worked for a security company providing protection services to high-profile business owners, while Jacobs is said to be a former “highly, highly trained” Special Task Force (STF) member, according to Western Cape police commissioner Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile.

Lifman used to be a director at the company called Professional Protection Alternatives (PPA). 

‘Johnny Bacardi’

Tenants at the apartment complex in Sea Point where Bezuidenhout lived, told News24 that the highly trained security official was regularly seen entering and leaving the building with “another man”, whom they now know is his co-accused.

“The two were often in gym clothing, lifting weights in the building’s parking area,” an elderly woman shared with the publication.

In an unusual twist surfacing from his past, Bezuidenhout was named in 2013 as glamour magazine Cosmopolitan’s “hottest bartender of the year”.

“When he was announced the winner, he ripped off his vest and jumped into the crowd, who lifted him above their heads,” the Weekend Argus reported in 2013.

Bezuidenhout’s social media profiles from the time, under the name “Johnny Bacardi” and long since abandoned, show his interests at the time centred on his career in the nightlife industry and mixed martial arts, with occasional references to family braais.

Café Caprice shooting

At the time of the “hottest bartender” competition, Bezuidenhout worked at the late and great Springbok winger James Small’s Camps Bay beach bar and restaurant, Café Caprice.

On 17 April 2017, a double shooting rocked the rugby star’s popular hangout.

The incident, in which two people sustained gunshot wounds, took place days after the CBD nightclub security turf war flared up again on 9 April.

The Cape Town CBD has experienced several cycles of violence, linked to the rise of various criminal actors and their desire to assert dominance and control in the nightclub security extortion racket.

The Hawks took over the investigation from the local police after reports surfaced the shooting was linked to the club turf war.

‘Battle for the doors and drugs’

In the late 1990s, rumoured ANC-aligned state intelligence operative and underworld kingpin  Cyril Beeka dominated nightclub security in the city with his companies called Pro Access and Red Security.

Beeka – who also served as Czech fugitive and former crime boss Radovan Krejcir‘s security consultant before their fall-out – was assassinated in March 2011.

Following Beeka’s death, Lifman, former bouncer Naudé, “Donkie” and his now estranged brother Colin Booysen merged Beeka’s two security companies with a security company operated by Naudé to form Specialised Protection Services (SPS).

Café Caprice: Lifman vs Modack

The Café Caprice shooting coincided with the time Nafiz Modack (who had known and been aligned to Beeka) and his associates, under The Security Group, started to try and muscle out the Lifman group’s security contracts.

According to a Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) study detailing the Lifman group’s involvement in the CBD nightclub security racket, titled Uncovering Cape Town’s Extortion Networks, “Modack’s entry as a rival punctured the relative peace in the nightclub industry”.

The bitter rivalry between the Modack group and Lifman group resulted in years of attempted murder plots and assassinations.

‘At the last minute, I cancelled’

In an exclusive interview with News24 at the time, Modack claimed that he was the intended target of the Café Caprice attack.

“On that particular day, we were supposed to have a meeting there. At the last minute, I cancelled,” Modack said.

In 2019, former 27s numbers gang member Chestlyn Adams was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for his role in the double shooting at Café Caprice.

Lifman group: Sexy Boys and 27s

According to a separate GI-TOC study, titled Lifting the Veil on Extortion in Cape Town, a common feature of the various criminal groups involved in extortion in the Cape Town CBD is their reliance on gangs from outside the area.

A 2021 report quoted in the study states:

“It was inevitable that criminal networks would attach themselves to places of night-time entertainment because an industry involving alcohol, drugs and prostitution was waiting to be criminally exploited.”

The Lifman group was rumoured to have used their alleged connection to Sexy Boys, as well as links with the 27s to bolster their activities.

Modack is alleged to be connected to the Terrible West Siders and the Junky Funky Kids, which are based mainly on the Cape Flats and in Woodstock, adjacent to the CBD, and it is claimed that he has used these gangs to orchestrate hits on his opponents.

Beeka, for instance, was allegedly closely associated with the Hard Livings, a powerful gang operating in the Cape Flats area.

He reportedly also often hired Moroccan gangs and criminal groups to attack businesses that refused to meet his extortion demands.

Timeline of Cape Town CBD’s security extortion racket

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