MICHAEL WALKER

Andre Naude, a chief executive officer of Specialised Protection Services (SPS), and his colleague Richard Van Zyl explain how the security company, an amalgamation of the two rival companies operates. Photo: Michael Walker

Caryn Dolley

COMMUNITY Safety MEC Dan Plato is meeting police top brass today about threats to city club owners by bouncers linked to underworld businessmen.

Yesterday, Plato said he would discuss the issue with provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer because club owners had complained to him that they were being intimidated to try to force them to use particular bouncers.

The meeting comes as the lid is being lifted on the lucrative and notorious nightclub scene dominated by a new player, Specialised Protection Services (SPS). The company was set up after underworld figure Cyril Beeka’s murder in March last year and is an amalgamation of two rival companies: Pro Security, which was previously run by Beeka, and the competing Professional Protection Services (PPS).

André Naudé, a chief executive officer of SPS, has listed two businessmen, Mark Lifman and Jerome Booysen, as people backing the company, which he says serves more than half the nightclubs in the province.

In the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court recently during the bail application of Serbian fugitive Dobrosav Gavric, who was driving Beeka when he was assassinated, the investigating officer Paul Hendrikse said Lifman was being investigated for organised crime.

Hendrikse said Booysen was a suspect in Beeka’s murder and a member of the Sexy Boys gang.

But Naudé has denied SPS is involved in any illegal activities.

Yesterday, Plato said he would ask police if they were aware of the threats to club owners and what they planned to do about it. He had

a scheduled meeting with Lamoer and the issue was top of the agenda.

“The problem is, (the owners) don’t want to complain about it officially, they won’t even write a letter because they’re too afraid to put down their details,” Plato said.

He would also ask police how they were dealing with foreign criminals who had based themselves in Cape Town and were running illegal activities from here.

Yesterday Naudé said he was not aware of any of his employees threatening club owners and if he did establish this was happening, he would take action against those responsible.

In the 1990s there were a number of reports of incidents involving security companies violently enforcing their services on city clubs to take over and sell drugs from the establishments.

In an earlier interview with the Cape Times, Naudé and his colleague Richard van Zyl explained from their point of view how the club security industry got to where it is today.

Jacques Cronje, another chief executive officer of SPS, had been unable to make the interview and Van Zyl sat in for him.

Naudé said he joined PPS in 1993 and a decade later the company was left to him.

Van Zyl said he joined Pro Security in 1995 and worked for Cronje. It was widely believed that Beeka had run Pro Security, but Naudé said at the time of his murder the company was owned by Cronje.

Naudé denied there was constant fighting between PPS and Pro Security, but recalled a fight in Green Point nine years ago when both companies ended up providing bouncers to the same club.

Naudé said his friend, Yuri “the Russian” Ulianitski, who was assassinated in Milnerton five years ago, had been present.

After the fight, Naudé and Cronje met to discuss how they would go about vetting clubs.

Things settled down.

“What happened was, a couple of days after the death of Cyril, I was contacted by Jacques asking wouldn’t it be possible for the two of us to sit down and decide on (whether it would) be better for us to merge.

“We then decided we’d do that,” Naudé said.

SPS was therefore created and launched on November 1, nine months after Beeka’s murder.

Naudé said in two decades he had been shot, intentionally driven over by a vehicle, and poisoned, and that had the two companies not merged, there would probably have been further attempts on his life.

He said Lifman helped with SPS’s initial funding and administrative work.

“As far as (I’m concerned), he’s a very good friend and a very good person,” Naudé said.

He said bouncers’ new uniforms – black outfits with yellow ties – would have cost R1 400 to make locally, but Lifman, who is in the clothing business, had the uniforms tailor-made in China for R800 each, with no extra costs.

Naudé said Booysen, who bought and sold property and whom he met in 1991, and his brother Colin also helped SPS in any way they could.

He did not believe Booysen had been involved in any illegal activities since 1997 and denied he was behind Beeka’s murder.

“I’ll tell you one thing, (Booysen) was a much better friend to Cyril Beeka than he was to me,” Naudé said.

Yesterday Booysen and Lifman declined to comment.

Last week the Cape Times published an article quoting Igor Russol, a Russian mafioso who had been Ulianitski’s best friend and who said there was an ongoing power struggle for control of the city’s nightclubs.

Russol had said the power struggle had led to the assassinations of Beeka and Ulianitski.

Naudé said a number of people thought like Russol in that those in power needed to be assassinated to make way for others.

He said this had prompted him to drive a bullet-proof vehicle, keep a gun on him and have a security guard stationed outside his home.

caryn.dolley@inl.co.za