Property mogul blamed for bombing
MILLIONAIRE property mogul and mobster businessman Mark Lifman has been named in an explosive affidavit by a senior state prosecutor following an attack on her Cape Town home.
The prosecutor made the sworn statement to the police after two petrol bombs were thrown at her home on Thursday evening last week.
The woman, who may not be named because her children’s identity must be protected, said the explosions at her house burnt part of her car and a wall near her front door.
In the statement, she said she suspected she was targeted when she learnt that Lifman was allegedly supplying boys at Tygerberg High School with drugs and paying them for naked pictures of themselves.
“I tried to interfere to put a stop to it,” she said.
She said she was informed that Lifman allegedly supplied drugs to children at the school.
“The children get [the] drugs from Mark Lifman. I was really shocked to hear Lifman’s name since I know who and what he is . . . I offered to help the headmaster to run a drug programme at the school and conduct regular searches with the dog unit of the police in order to clean the school [of] drugs,” she said in her statement made to the directorate for priority crime, the Hawks.
Lifman, when contacted for comment, said: “Haven’t I told you before not to phone me? Don’t bother phoning me again.” He terminated the call before the allegations could be put to him.
The prosecutor, who lives in fear of her life, said she and a member of the Hawks in Cape Town had a meeting scheduled with parents and boys from Tygerberg High School at 4pm on Friday last week. The bombs at her house had gone off at 10pm the previous night.
“I switched the light off . . . my one child and myself were still awake when I heard a loud noise and saw a bright light . . . Both my child and myself ran to the curtains. I saw that my car and a section of my house was burning. I immediately phoned Captain [Ken] Speed [from the Hawks] . . . I regard this incident in a very serious light,” she said.
One of her colleagues said she had not been placed under protection by the National Prosecuting Authority “despite the fact that she is vulnerable and received a clear and direct warning”.
The Hawks’ spokesman, Captain Paul Ramaloko, said the prosecutor’s safety was the “responsibility of the NPA”.
The NPA’s advocate, Nollie Niehaus, said: “We cannot confirm whether people are in witness protection or not.”
The prosecutor said that when she discussed Lifman’s involvement with school children at Tygerberg High School, she was told by a member of the Hawks that “Lifman not only provides drugs to the children, he also pays them for naked pictures of themselves. Lifman takes them to clubs; pays their gym membership; buys them clothes and cellphones. “He only focuses on boys.” One of several parents interviewed said: “Lifman targets single mothers with teenage boys — usually they have financial problems . . . He befriends the mothers and then takes the boys out, hangs out with them, buys them clothes and alcohol.
“He only likes the boys until they’re about 15 years old. The older boys are turned into pimps for him, encouraging the younger boys to meet this ‘nice guy on BBM [BlackBerry messaging’,” the mother said.
“Lifman spends money on these kids, takes them out to restaurants. He even took two boys to Thailand, and one of the boys who acted as his pimp were given a motorbike by Lifman.”
She said she would “fear for her life and the life of my son” if their identities were made known. “Lifman sends his driver to pick up the boys at restaurants and clubs and then take them to his house. The driver drives a black Porsche Cayenne . . . My son didn’t have a good experience. We were lucky, though,” she said.