Within a few hours in Cape Town one of the most high-profile organised crime cases that is developing in the city inched ahead in a courtroom – and nearby, in a separate incident, a shooting took place.

The two matters, though, have some indirect overlaps.

On Friday 5 May alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack appeared in the Western Cape High Court to face more than 3,100 charges along with 14 co-accused.

They face counts including murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, money laundering and abduction.

A court case and a shooting

Some of the charges are linked to the assassination of Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear who was shot outside his Bishop Lavis home in Cape Town on 18 September 2020.

At the time, Kinnear had been investigating individuals including Modack, as well as fellow police officers.

The high-profile Modack criminal case, in which the state has accused Modack of heading a criminal organisation known as the “Modack Enterprise” was postponed from Friday to next month for pre-trial proceedings to continue.

Meanwhile, on the same day that Modack and his co-accused appeared in the Western Cape High Court, Joel Booysen, the son of Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, was wounded in a shooting in Green Point.

Joel Booysen. (Photo: TikTok)

The Western Cape High Court is roughly 1.4 kilometres from the area where Joel was shot.

Members of his family have been on police radar in the past.

In a previous court case, a cop alleged Jerome was the head of the Sexy Boys gang, while in another case he was accused of Mandrax dealing.

Jerome’s brother (Joel’s uncle) Colin Booysen was previously an accused in an extortion-related case with Modack but that case ended with their acquittals.

AKA, plus ‘bottles and ballers’

According to Joel’s TikTok account, he had known rapper Kiernan Forbes, also known as AKA, who was murdered in a shooting outside a Durban restaurant in February.

In a post about Forbes’s killing, Joel had posted: “never dreamt the day would come when I’d have to say Goodbye to you FOREVER 😭❤ Forever In My Heart Cuz.”

https://www.tiktok.com/@joelbooysen_cpt/video/7198923677981805830?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7229728704174884357

According to his TikTok account, Joel was the owner of Jet Lounge, as well as the establishment Sneaker Cartel, situated in Cape Town’s iconic Long Street, and which is described on its Instagram page as “The city’s home of bottles and ballers.”

Nightclub security linked to Long Street has previously been a source of underworld tensions in Cape Town.

Read on Daily Maverick: The Enforcers – Inside Cape Town’s Deadly Nightclub Battles

This loops back to his father – Jerome’s name previously cropped up in nightclub security issues.

Nightclubs, security and steroids

According to what previously surfaced in other Cape Town court cases, there were two groups tussling for control of security initially focused on the city – on the one side was Modack and a group of men, and on the other side, a group including Mark Lifman and Jerome Booysen.

Jerome ‘Donkie’ Booysen leaves the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court on 22 December 2020. (Photo: Adrian de Kock)

In a previous court case relating to Modack, police had alleged the Lifman and Jerome group were rivals to Modack’s.

Jerome, like Modack, is also an accused in a criminal case involving murder – he faces charges in connection with the 2017 killing of steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein.

That trial is yet to commence.

While Joel does not face criminal charges like his father, he is, based on his TikTok account, also clearly involved in the entertainment establishment industry in Cape Town.

And now, like his father who has been wounded in shootings several times, he has also been hit by a bullet or bullets.

Targeted

Friday’s shooting appeared to be the second attempt on his life – in an incident at the end of March, Joel’s vehicle was shot near the suburb of Belhar but he was not hurt.

The March incident happened as other shootings played out around Cape Town – Daily Maverick previously reported that in one incident in mid-March Simon Stanfield, the cousin of alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield, was murdered in the suburb of Delft.

On Friday, after Joel was wounded in the Green Point shooting, he apparently ran into a shopping centre.

One person shot in the the leg ran inside the centre pic.twitter.com/0txwFm3uo6

— 💕Tanswell – Proud 🏳️‍🌈 Dad (@Mutaaz_Aspeling) May 5, 2023

Video footage shows him sitting in a wheelchair and sipping what appears to be water as men wheel him away.

Joel Booysen in a wheelchair. (Photo: Screengrab Twitter)

Police spokesperson Captain Frederick van Wyk, without naming Joel, told Daily Maverick that the shooting happened around 12.30pm.

“Preliminary reports indicate that unknown gunmen opened fire at an adult male, wounding him,” Van Wyk said.

“At arrival on the scene the members were informed that the victim was already taken to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.”

An attempted murder case was being investigated.

On Friday afternoon, Van Wyk said, crime scene experts were “still on the scene combing the area for clues”.

Jerome told News24 it appeared Joel would recover.

Assassinations

Several years ago, in 2012, a Hawks investigator alleged during a court case in Cape Town that Jerome was a suspect in the 2011 murder of nightclub security kingpin and rumoured intelligence agent Cyril Beeka.

Nothing came of that claim.

Meanwhile, other shootings have been linked to the Brian Wainstein murder case, in which Jerome is an accused.

Daily Maverick previously reported that in October 2022 another suspect in the case, Anthony “Amier” van der Watt, was shot dead in the Cape Town suburb of Retreat.

In March 2021 another accused, Jason Maits, was gunned down outside his house in Mitchells Plain.

And the month before that, in February 2021, William “Red” Stevens, reputed to have been one of the most seasoned 27s gangsters in the Western Cape, was murdered in a shooting at his home in the Cape Town suburb of Kraaifontein. DM