A former employee of underworld kingpin Mark Lifman claims he was “cruel and sadistic”.

Lifman, 57, was shot on Sunday, Nov. 3, in the parking lot of the Garden Route Mall in George.

Two men, Johannes Jacobs and Gert Bezuidenhout, were arrested for his murder.

Speaking to IOL, the former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was homeless and living on the mountain in Sea Point when Lifman hired him.

Before this he broken by selling second-hand goods at the Great Parade.

He says, outside 79 Ocean View Drive, a dilapidated three-story house, a man he knew called and offered him a job helping take care of a rich man’s place.

“He told me there was a very rich man called Mark and he was very powerful and he assumed the guy was involved in illegal activities because he always had bodyguards with him and strange people were constantly trying to get into the place,” he said. he said. IOL.

“These were apparently guys who were at odds with Mark and fighting for control of Sea Point. When he mentioned that, I realized he could very well be talking about Mark Lifman. He immediately recognized the last name and confirmed it was Lifman.”

He said people came to the property at all hours “to exchange packages and money and to meet”.

He said Lifman called once to talk to him and explain how things worked.

“I knew Mark Lifman before he became homeless. I had heard all kinds of stories, especially in the gay community, because people thought he was despicable because of his well-known preference for very young boys.”

He said things went well for a while, and while neighbors kept calling the police, no one ever came to investigate.

He says Lifman asked him about gay clubs and then invited him to a party in the Gardens and even offered him designer clothing and leather bondage gear to wear, as well as drugs “to relax him.”

“I got to the location in the Gardens and I couldn’t believe the scene. There were naked men everywhere and different rooms were assigned to different sexual preferences and fetishes.”

He claims he saw Lifman whip and choke a very young boy.

“He would slap him, spit on him, urinate on him. I was sick.”

The man says he almost lost his life a few days later when he was pushed through a hole in the house and fell three stories.

At the hospital, a female doctor allegedly wanted to place him in a psychiatric institution and decided to run away in the middle of the night.

Now almost two years later, he still lives in fear as he watched the pimps who brought unruly boys to Lifman mysteriously disappear.

“Lifman thought I would be a good connection for him to bring in guys from more disadvantaged backgrounds. He liked boys who were a little rough and tough, so he had reason to punish them for insubordination later during the power play with these boys.

“(Lifman) put on this business persona that would fool the most savvy businessman, but he had a cruel, sadistic side to him. A side that has damaged many young lives.”

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