Controversial businessman Mark Lifman has taken legal action against Beerhouse owner Randolf Jorberg over statements he made during media interviews and on social media, where he painted Lifman as an extortionist.
Lifman through his lawyer has now given Jorberg seven days to retract all the alleged defamatory statements.
Jorberg, who has since left the country, previously lifted the lid on the extortion of businesses in the Cape Town CBD and said he was forced to pay after his doorman was killed.
He said the pressure to pay protection fees started in 2013, when “a man from the underworld” allegedly linked to Lifman visited his business.
Jorberg said he refused to pay for two years, until his bouncer, Joe Kanyona, 32, was stabbed in the neck at Beerhouse on June 20, 2015.
The German-born entrepreneur says: "I paid R2 000 and it was never about the amount, because our business was doing well back then.“
In 2020, Jorberg created a WhatsApp group called Cape Town Racketeers, which included then Mayor Dan Plato, former SAPS head Jeremy Vearey and Mayco Member for Safety and Security JP Smith among others.
In a screenshot of the WhatsApp chat, Jorberg accused alleged underworld kingpins, including Nafiz Modack, André Naude, Mark Lifman and the late Cyril Beeka of extorting legal businesses in the CBD for protection money under the guise of “security services”.
He asked: “Why have the Modack’s, the Naude’s, the Lifman’s and Cyril Beekas been allowed to trade in the open for the last 20 years?” (sic)
At the beginning of this month, Beerhouse permanently shut its doors.
On Saturday, Jorberg took to Facebook, saying he needs a lawyer to represent him, pro bono, in a case against Lifman and Hussein Taleb, for intimidation, extortion, and murder.
He said cops were unable to take his statements via video calls and has formal requirements that are difficult to fulfil through Interpol and he now needs a South African attorney to ensure the case is not dropped again.
On Wednesday, Lifman’s lawyers at Ian Levitt Attorneys put Jorberg on notice.
The document focuses on a series of public statements he made about Lifman.
“In the circumstances, having regard to the defamatory nature of your statements and the prejudice suffered by our client, as a result of your publication of false facts, we are instructed to demand on behalf of our client as we do, that: You retract the statements on every social media platform on which they were published and falling within your control, within 7 days of receipt of this letter, and in any event by no later than 4 September 2024; and you publish the following apology and retraction on each platform on which your statements are published, falling within your control: “My statements as they relate to Mark Lifman have been unreservedly retracted due to factual inaccuracies which may have been defamatory to the subject of the statements. I have agreed to this retraction to avoid unnecessary litigation and as an amicable resolution to the dispute with the subject.”
The lawyers demanded that Jorberg also share the public retraction with media houses that interviewed him, failing which they will sue him.
Daily Voice