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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


Cape Town ‘underworld kingpins’ granted R100k bail each

Minister of Police Bheki Cele welcomed their arrest, saying it was 'a huge victory in the fight against organised crime'.


The fraud and corruption case against three alleged Cape Town underworld figures has been postponed to 9 February 2021 after they were granted bail on Tuesday.

Mark Lifman, 53, Jerome Booysen, 56, and William Stevens, 66, appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court following their arrest by the Hawks. They were granted bail of R100,000 each.

“The three men were arrested in one of the phases of an ongoing investigation into extortion, dealing in drugs, fraud, corruption and money laundering activities of the Cape Town underworld organised crime,” said Hawks spokesperson Katlego Mogale.

The trio also stand accused of the murder of Brian Wainstein.

READ MORE: ‘Police are being targeted in an organised way’ – Cele at killed KZN cop’s funeral

Mogale said the three were also ordered to hand in their passports, report to their nearest police station once a week and should they need to leave the province, inform the investigating officer before doing so.

Minister of Police Bheki Cele welcomed their arrest, saying it was “a huge victory in the fight against organised crime”.

“This is only the beginning of our efforts as the police to tighten the grip on these crimes committed by the underworld and run extortion rackets that undermine the state and threaten the livelihoods of local economies,” Cele said.

Compiled by Molefe Seeletsa

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