Mark Lifman |
Cape Town - Confidential police information which allegedly ended up
with controversial businessman Mark Lifman formed the focus of court
proceedings in the extortion case against suspected underworld kingpin
Nafiz Modack.
A bail application in the matter continued in the
Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday with lawyer Ben Mathewson
questioning Charl Kinnear, the investigating officer in the case.
Mathewson,
who represents Ashley Fields, one of the accused in the matter, asked
Kinnear questions about how Lifman had accessed privileged police
information.
He also questioned Kinnear about his apparent ties to suspected Sexy Boys gang boss Jerome Booysen.
During
proceedings Mathewson produced a photograph of Jerome Booysen’s son
with Kinnear’s son. Kinnear said the photograph was taken in either 2012
or 2013 and that he may have taken it.
It has previously emerged
in court that Lifman and Booysen were part of a rival security faction
against a grouping headed by Modack.
It was also alleged on Wednesday that Lifman controlled certain police officers.
Modack is accused of extortion and intimidation alongside Fields,
Colin Booysen – Jerome Booysen’s brother, Jacques Cronje, and Carl
Lakay.
They face charges relating to the nightclub security
industry in that they allegedly took over security operations at clubs
and restaurants, forcing owners to pay them.
Two versions of what transpired have so far emerged via the bail application.
The
one version is that the case has actually been orchestrated by Lifman
and is a platform on which police corruption is being exposed, while the
second version is that police officers are being painted as corrupt for
doing their jobs and making high-profile arrests.
During Friday’s proceedings Mathewson put it to Kinnear that when
Fields and the others were arrested, they had informally mentioned that
Lifman was behind them being taken into custody.
Kinnear replied
that Modack had talked about Lifman’s involvement and Fields had said
something along the lines of: “Ja, money can solve anything.”
Mathewson
questioned Kinnear about two visits he made to Lifman’s home, which
Kinnear had said was in connection with investigations he was busy with.
He also referred to Grant Veroni
- a director of the company Skhosana Maponyane Hall Phillips and
Khumalo, trading as The Security Group (TSG), which police have
previously alleged in court is at the centre of underworld ructions.
Veroni
appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. It was the
third time he was arrested and granted bail in about five months.
During
Wednesday’s proceedings in the extortion matter it emerged that in an
affidavit, Veroni had said Lifman had told him there was a warrant for
his arrest and that “his” police officers had been to Veroni’s home.
This happened before the third time he was arrested.
On Friday Mathewson questioned Kinnear on how Lifman knew this confidential police information.
‘Nothing remains a secret in SA’
Kinnear replied: “Nothing stays a secret in South Africa.”
Lifman had apparently known that Veroni would be released on bail after his latest arrest.
“Mr Lifman knew that 10 days prior. That’s suspicious Sir,” Matthewson told Kinnear on Friday.
Kinnear
said that Veroni had been released on bail following his latest arrest
because after his two previous arrests he had also been granted bail and
the latest case was similar to the previous two he faced.
But Mathewson questioned how Lifman knew Kinnear’s opinion on the matter.
Kinnear said he had not discussed the matter with Lifman and Lifman would be in a better position to answer Mathewson.
Relationships and photograph in focus
Previously Kinnear had testified that his son had at one stage been in a relationship with Jerome Booysen’s niece.
On
Friday, he elaborated on this, saying his children had been friends
with Jerome Booysen’s sister’s children as they had gone to school
together.
Mathewson had then put it to Kinnear that he had a photograph of Jerome Booysen’s son and Kinnear’s son.
“It’s not unlikely,” Kinnear replied.
Asked who had taken the photograph, Kinnear said he may have taken it himself.
During
proceedings on Wednesday, attorney Bruce Hendricks, who represents
Colin Booysen, said the extortion case was actually about police
corruption.
"This matter is nothing more than officers of the law being corrupt and being in cahoots with people,” he had said.
The bail application is expected to continue on February 1.
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