Colin Booysen, an accused prominent member of the Cape Town underworld, and three other men appeared in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday after being detained by the Hawks for three hits reportedly related to a narcotics turf war between the Western Cape and Gauteng.
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Booysen, the estranged brother of suspected Sexy Boys chief Jerome Booysen, Sillico Zainut Oliphant, Moegamat Faizal Abrahams and Herbert Anthony Zoutman appeared in court, supported by family and friends in the public gallery.
Sipho Prince Khumalo was detained in Gauteng and briefly appeared in court in Pretoria on Wednesday.
He will be moved to Cape Town to join the others when they return to the dock on Tuesday, 16 July. A sixth person sought by police remains at large.
Oliphant and Abrahams were arrested in 2018 for the murder of Craig Mathieson, the night manager of Hotel 303 in Sea Point, which is owned by businessman Mark Lifman.
Proceedings were scarcely heard over the rain that pelted the court’s roof during the Cape storm, as the prosecutor requested a postponement until Tuesday.
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Booysen, Oliphant and a sixth individual who has yet to be caught are accused of murdering Marwaan Desai and Shameem Mohamed at the Howard Drive McDonald’s in Pinelands, Cape Town, in June 2017.
Booysen and Oliphant are accused of murdering reputed gang boss Mark Groenewald in Reiger Park, Boksburg, in December 2017.
Desai was mentioned by Mr X, who is testifying in the prosecution of Lifman, Colin’s brother Jerome, and others for the murder of steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein in Constantia, Cape Town, as well as their alleged involvement in a violent nightclub security takeover in August 2017.
During the trial, Mr X said that Desai was a general in the 27s gang who had introduced him into the gang in a ceremony held in a garage in Mitchells Plain.
Mr X stated that he was in Table View expecting a visit from Desai and Mohamed to further educate him on 27s gang culture when he received word that they had been shot dead. According to Mr X, Mohamed previously worked as a debt collector.
The extra accusations stem from the suspected illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
The first four, and in certain cases Khumalo, are also suspected of possessing and trafficking huge amounts of mandrax, the party drug ecstacy and cannabis.
The indictment bases the charges on the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, the Drug Trafficking Act, the Riotous Assemblies Act, and firearm laws, and claims that Booysen and Oliphant formed a racketeering enterprise that conspired with others to commit the crimes they are accused of in order to further the enterprise’s interests.
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