Mark Lifman murder: ‘You have not been found guilty yet,’ says magistrate as suspects denied bail

The two men accused of murdering alleged underworld figure Mark Lifman will remain in custody after they were denied bail.

Johannes Jacobs, 53, and Gert Bezuidenhout, 37, appeared in the George Magistrate’s Court in the Western Cape on Friday for the decision on their bail applications.

Both men are accused of being involved in the fatal shooting of Lifman, who was killed in the parking lot at the Garden Route Mall on 3 November last year.

A white VW Polo was seen speeding away from the scene immediately following the incident.

However, authorities tracked the vehicle several hours later near Uniondale, which led to the eventual arrest of Jacobs and Bezuidenhout.

Mark Lifman murder accused denied bail

On Friday, Magistrate André Aucamp ruled that the two men had failed to present any substantial or extraordinary circumstances to justify their release on bail.

He also concluded that the state had a strong prima facie case against them.

“You have not been found guilty yet. This is not a trial, this is not for this court to decide whether you are guilty or not. That will come in the future,” Aucamp stated in his ruling.

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“This court must just decide whether bail should be granted in this matter. For the reasons the court gave above, the court cannot find that it will even be in the interest of justice if you’ll be released.

“Neither does exceptional circumstances exist, which was placed before the court so the court in that case cannot grant bail and bail is then denied,” the presiding officer added.

Following the decision, the case was postponed to 20 February for further investigation, with the state still awaiting the results of cellphone record analysis and ballistic tests.

Life imprisonment?

The prosecution argued strongly against granting bail, emphasising the severity of the charges and the likelihood of a significant prison sentence if the accused are convicted.

“The nature and gravity of punishment is likely to be imposed, if the accused are convicted of a charge against them. Both applicants are staring life imprisonment in the face,” the prosecutor told the court.

“They are being charged with premeditated murder, committed in the furtherance of a common purpose. This is the ultimate penalty that our law may impose on these two applicants.”

Lifman’s death came just a day before the 57-year-old was scheduled to appear in court for the Brian Weinstein murder trial.

He had been out on R100 000 bail at the time, after he surrendered to Cape Town police in December 2020.

The alleged underworld boss was the primary accused in the 2017 murder of Brian Weinstein, a notorious figure known as the “steroid king”, who was gunned down at his home in Constantia.

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