Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cape Town businessman Mark Lifman and some of his co-accused made a routine pre-trial Western Cape High Court appearance on Friday in connection with the murder of convicted steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein.
Wainstein was murdered in front of his partner and child in Constantia in 2017.
It is suspected that his murder is linked to old disputes among Cape Town’s supposed illegal business networks.
Three of the accused did not get as far as their trial and were shot dead in public. Red Stevens was shot dead in Kraaifontein on 2 February 2021, Jason Maits was shot dead in Mitchells Plain on 5 March 2021, and Anthony Aamier van der Watt and one other person were shot dead in Cape Town while driving between Pollsmoor Prison and Kraaifontein on 6 October 2022.
Their co-accused, former security company owner Matthew Breet from West Beach, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in terms of a plea and sentencing agreement.
Cheslin Adams and Fabian Cupido, who drove the vehicle the day Wainstein was killed, were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment each.
The suburbs included in the indictment on alleged gang activity are Sea Point, Camps Bay, Kraaifontein, Plattekloof, Belhar, Mitchells Plain and Constantia.
Not all the accused face all of the charges, but those implicated in his murder are alleged to have wanted Wainstein out of the picture as a result of competition in the illegal steroids market, while competition over nightclub security also festered.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said not all of the accused or their lawyers were in court on Friday.
Most are out on bail, but Cape Town’s infamous traffic gridlock caused some setbacks.
Some of the accused will return to the court on Friday, 10 February. The trial itself is set down for 24 July to 20 September 2023.
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