News24 | Cape Town 'gang' cases progress slowly to trial

• Cape Town court cases involving alleged gangs are moving at a snail's pace through courts. 
• Delays range from battles raising money for lawyers, to new arrests added to the charge sheet, and busy courts. 
• Here are some of the cases to watch, they involve a diversity of accused from sleek highfliers to pale and grumpy alleged accomplices fed up with waiting for their trial.

The National Prosecuting Authority is currently running several high-profile cases in Cape Town involving alleged legacy gangs and new kids on the block. 

When the main trials finally begin, they will likely rival the fictional Top Boy and The Wire in complexity and colour as the co-accused range from sartorial highfliers with diversified business interests like car dealerships, beauty salons, and construction to former cops, loyal facilitators, and runners all connected by deep bonds of brotherhood.

However, even with modern investigative techniques that can retrieve WhatsApp messages, location data, and CCTV and cellphone camera footage to build cases where the paperwork would fill the back of a large bakkie, many logistical requirements still have to be filled.

In some, it is the accused balking at applying for Legal Aid in the hopes of rustling up the money for a private lawyer, in others, it is finding court dates that don't overlap where the accused are in more than one case.

Many of the cases started with a bang, with high-profile arrests, like Nafiz Modack's frantic driving around traffic circles in Century City to evade arrest or Yanga Nyalara being caught sandwiched in bed between two women (according to Police Minister Bheki Cele).

However, for the accused not on bail, it is a long cycle of pre-trial processes, with police vans bringing them from prisons around the province, then the long drive back afterwards.

The Nafiz Modack case 

The "Nafiz Modack Enterprise" case was triggered by the murder of Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear in 2020. 

The allegations range from money laundering to conspiracy to murder Kinnear, Nicolaas Heerschap, the father of a former Hawks investigator, tow truck driver Richard Joseph; and Cubana Green Point bouncer Pitshou Falanga, as well as conspiracy to murder Cape Town lawyer William Booth, and security company owner Andre Naude. 

The case was postponed on Friday for further pre-trial to 29 January 2024, but there are fresh bail applications in between.

Modack has two other cases against him and others: one for R46m in VAT refund fraud with Faried van der Schyff, Modack's mother Ruwaida Modack, his brother Yaseen Modack, Bashier Syce, Nadia Sait, Dominique McLachlan, Kulsum van der Schyff and Layla Bedderson. This was also postponed to 29 January 2024 due to lawyer issues. 

The prosecutor in the tax case attempted to apply for an inquiry into the delays allegedly caused by Modack's legal representation but was shut down by the pre-trial judge on Friday.

Modack's trial for the corruption of former Cape Town Central police station commander Kolindren Govender resumes on 16 November.

He allegedly paid Govender to find missing cars for him without it going through the usual stolen car database. Govender pleaded guilty and served his time. Modack says Govender lent him money, and he was paying him back.

READ | If Nafiz Modack wants to meet people to ask for money, the Hawks need to vet them first, state says

The Mark Lifman case

Mark Lifman, Jerome Booysen, and others will go on trial for the 2017 murder of convicted steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein on 22 July 2024. Weinstein was shot dead in his bed in Constantia, Cape Town, in front of his partner and child. Three accused have been murdered. 

The trial was supposed to run from July to September this year, but the Western Cape High Court did not have a judge to hear it. Their charges include counts under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA).

Booysen is in a separate case with others involving alleged drug trafficking, but the trial dates clash with the Wainstein matter. The State and the defence must find a new date after the defence balked at 2025.

READ | 'Steroid kingpin' murder: Embarrassing shortage of judges stalls Mark Lifman trial to next year

The Ralph Stanfield case 

Ralph Stanfield and his wife, Nicole Johnson, were arrested at home in Constantia on 29 September this year. The State alleges that Stanfield, Johnson, and three others were behind the hunt for a man he believed had stolen cash from their ATM at their fuel station in Belhar and another ATM they have interests in.

Stanfield regards this as a civil dispute that involved no violence. They are currently in the process of applying for bail, which resumes on 17 October. The State alleges Stanfield heads The Firm and works with the 28s prison number gang.

They are also the accused in a case involving firearm competency certificates, which resumes in December this year. 

READ | ATM cash skimming, a street shooting and a 'stolen' BMW: Stanfield bail application

The alleged Terrible Josters case 

Twenty men allegedly from the Terrible Josters gang in Delft are still on trial. Their case centres on allegations that they, led by Elton "Koffie" Lenting, took part in murders, attempted murders, illegal drug possession, drug dealing, and illegal possession of guns and ammunition. This case has dragged on from 2017.

READ | Shady Mickey Mouse, Union Jack art: State focuses on gang iconography in 'Terrible Josters' trial

The Yanga Nyalara case

Yanga "Bara" Nyalara is alleged to be the cocky young kingpin behind the extortion-related murders that wracked Khayelitsha. Extortion is when shadowy figures demand the payment of a fee for the right to conduct business or pass through an area safely.

Refusal leads to violent reprisals. He and his co-accused face 18 murder charges and six attempted murder charges. He used to be a schoolteacher.

READ | 'The dog is dead': Court readies for alleged extortionists' mega murder trial