As the two men charged with the premeditated murder of underworld figure Mark Lifman appeared in the George magistrate’s court, it emerged that one of the suspects had worked for crime intelligence in the 1990s.
Johannes Jacobs, 53, and Gert Bezuidenhout, 37, briefly took to the dock amid a heavy police presence on Tuesday morning.
The media were allowed into court on strict instructions that the officials involved in the case not be named, and that photographs of the accused not be taken.
The Garden Route town has been rocked by the brazen daylight hit murder of Lifman in the parking lot of a busy shopping mall.
Lifman, 57, was still carrying his shopping bags when he was gunned down on Sunday, a day before he was due to appear in the Western Cape High Court, where he is charged alongside 13 others for the 2017 murder of “steroid kingpin” Brian Wainstein.
He became the fourth accused in the matter to be killed.
On Tuesday, heavily armed police officials stood guard inside and outside the court as Jacobs and Bezuidenhout entered the dock.
Both men brought an application to be held in solitary confinement, away from other inmates.
However, their requests were denied.
The court also heard how, in the 1990s, Jacobs had worked for the then-SA Police Intelligence Unit. He resigned in 1999.
He said he now worked for a security company in Cape Town and had retired from the army in 1992.
Both accused are SA citizens, contrary to earlier reports that the men are from Russia.
They were arrested on Sunday afternoon, hours after Lifman was shot dead at the Garden Route Mall shortly after 11.30am.
CCTV footage seen by The Herald shows how his shooters waited for him to emerge from the shopping centre before brazenly killing him with a single bullet to the head.
They then fled the scene.
Jacobs and Bezuidenhout were apprehended near Uniondale and the vehicle they were travelling in was seized.
They were taken in for questioning and later charged with Lifman’s murder.
The state said on Tuesday that it believed the murder was premeditated.
The men will remain in custody until Wednesday next week, when a date for a formal bail application is expected to be arranged.
Addressing the media outside court, Western Cape police commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile said detectives were still investigating the motive for Lifman’s murder.
“We are busy with the investigation. Anything else found in the [seized] vehicle is the subject of the investigation,” Patekile said.
“We know that one of the accused was once a member of the police force and resigned some years ago.
“We do not yet know the reason for his resignation, all that will be investigated as the case continues.”
He said advanced technology, together with CCTV footage, had assisted them to swiftly locate the suspects.
The commissioner said police officers in the Western Cape were on high alert and with a suspected shift happening in the criminal underworld, their primary job was to ensure no more blood was spilt.
Lifman’s close friend, former business partner and co-accused in the Wainstein murder trial, Andre Naude, previously told The Herald that Lifman had been in George to play golf.
The friends were due to meet again in the dock of the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
Instead, the matter was postponed to November 11, Lifman’s lawyer withdrew from the case and the state said a death certificate would be handed in in due course.
The prosecution of the remaining accused will continue.
Wainstein was shot dead in bed next to his wife and child in the early hours of August 18 2017 at their Constantia home in Cape Town.
The gunmen took three cellphones before they fled, leaving his wife and child unharmed.
Lifman was arrested on December 22 2020, after handing himself over to the police.
HeraldLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.