William “Red” Stevens was murdered on Tuesday night, shot at his home in the Cape Town suburb of Kraaifontein. He was the second of three suspects, arrested recently in connection with the 2017 murder of a global steroid smuggler, to have been involved in shootings.

Stevens was reputed to have been one of the most seasoned 27s gangsters in the Western Cape.

Shortly after the incident on Tuesday, Western Cape police spokesperson Colonel André Traut confirmed:

“The circumstances surrounding the death of a 56-year-old man are being investigated after he was shot and killed at his residence in Rembrandt Street Kraaifontein this evening at around 18:35. Three unknown suspects fled the scene and are yet to be arrested.”

Traut said it was too early to divulge the identity of the victim, but Daily Maverick understands it was Stevens. Three sources pointed to the murdered man as Stevens.

Stevens, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen and Mark Lifman were arrested on 23 December 2020 in connection with the 18 August 2017 murder of international steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein.

They appeared in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court and were each released on R100,000 bail. Six days later it was reported that Booysen had been shot at while attending a funeral in the Cape Town suburb of Durbanville, but was not wounded.

The trio was expected back in court next Tuesday. It is not clear if the case against Lifman and Booysen, who has been pointed out as the alleged head of the Sexy Boys gang, will proceed as planned.

Daily Maverick has reported how Wainstein had been connected to a string of court cases in several countries as well as to suspected local underworld figures.

Charges against murdered ‘Steroid King’ reveal a global web of crime cases

Aside from Stevens, Lifman and Booysen, four other men — two originally from Johannesburg and two from Cape Town — had previously been arrested and charged in connection with Wainstein’s assassination.

Another man who has been identified in court papers in allegations about Wainstein’s murder, Kishor Naidoo (also known as Kamaal), who was previously based in Cape Town, is the focus of an Interpol red notice.

The names of Lifman, Booysen and Stevens surfaced about three years ago during a bail application centred around Nafiz Modack.

With four other men, including Jerome Booysen’s brother Colin Booysen, Modack was arrested in December 2017 for alleged extortion involving an establishment in Cape Town (over which they were subsequently acquitted).

During a bail application in this matter, Modack had claimed that police officers Jeremy Vearey and Charl Kinnear, who were investigating matters relating to him, were actually on the payroll of Lifman and Booysen.

Smear and Loathing: Cop versus cop versus gangster in an unseemly melee that betrays the people’s trust

It had further emerged that Modack claimed Vearey had worked with the head of the 27s gang, who he named as Red (Stevens’ alias), to have attorney Noorudien Hassan killed in November 2016.

Kinnear was assassinated outside his Bishop Lavis home on 18 September 2020.

Zane Kilian, arrested in connection with Kinnear’s death, is in the process of applying for bail. DM