Prominent underworld businessmen in the city are behind the trafficking of drugs into communities on the Cape Flats, Community Safety MEC Dan Plato believes.
He says he has reached this conclusion while probing Cape Town’s lucrative nightclub industry.
Plato’s investigation has been separate from that conducted by the police which has led to a spate of arrests and operations targeting people with alleged links to the underworld.
People working in the club security industry, and particularly members of new company Specialised Protection Services (SPS), have been a focus of the investigation.
In one week alone 14 members of SPS were arrested.
Although court cases against 13 of the 14 SPS members arrested have been withdrawn, the company appears to be buckling. A 15th arrest, that of Sea Point businessman Mark Lifman, is pending, Lifman’s attorney has confirmed.
Plato said that through his investigations, which involved interviews with underworld figures, he realised there were key players controlling drug operations in communities that at first glance appeared to be run by local gangs.
These key players were also involved in businesses in Cape Town, he said.
“It seems to me that the gangsters on the Cape Flats are only the minor players,” Plato said.
“The big guys controlling everything are the underworld guys.
“We need to unravel this whole thing.
“If we can unravel this we can unravel the drug problem on the Cape Flats.
“At the end of the day we owe it to Capetonians to let them know what’s happening.”
Plato said that he was pleased police were making arrests.
In recent actions in the clampdown on the nightclub security industry:
* André Naudé, an SPS chief executive officer, appeared in court last week on allegations of running the company without having registered it with the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authorit (PSIRA).
Naudé has been granted bail.
SPS was set up after underworld boss Cyril Beeka was murdered in March and is an amalgamation of two rival firms, one of which had been run by Beeka.
* A warrant of arrest was issued for Lifman.
Naudé has alleged in an earlier interview with the Cape Times that Lifman backs SPS.
It is understood that SPS is based at Lifman’s offices in Sea Point.
Lifman’s legal representative, William Booth, said that four days ago the Hawks had searched Lifman’s Sea Point offices, where SPS was based, and attached a range of documents, including contracts.
Booth said an arrest warrant had been issued for Lifman.
The warrant related to SPS not being registered with the PSIRA, Booth said.
He said Lifman was in China on business.
He had left South Africa on Tuesday and the warrant was issued two days later.
Booth said Lifman was in constant contact with him and was expected to return in about two weeks. Last Monday, the day before he left for China, Lifman and an alleged associate, Jerome Booysen, who also backed SPS, had asked Plato to meet them.
During the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court hearing last month of Serbian fugitive Dobrosav Gavric’s application for bail, investigating officer Paul Hendrikse said that Lifman was under investigation by the police’s organised crime unit.
He also told the court that Booysen was a leader of the Sexy Boys gang and was being investigated in connection with the murder of Beeka.
Plato said Lifman and Booysen told him at their meeting that they were not involved in criminal activities.
He said Lifman told him that he had heard that police believed he killed underworld kingpin Yuri “The Russian” Ulianitski in Milnerton five years ago.
Lifman told him he had not been involved in the murder, Plato said.
Recently, a number of Cape Town nightclub owners complained to Plato that certain individuals were threatening them in an attempt to make them engage specific bouncers. - Cape Times