Mark Lifman Seeks Public Apology over Allegations by Beerhouse Owner Randolf Jorberg

Mark Lifman, an individual accused of underworld dealings and murder, has issued a demand for a public apology from the former owner of the once-popular Beerhouse on Long Street, Randolf Jorberg. Jorberg had made stinging allegations against Lifman in the aftermath of a Carte Blanche exposé that divulged grim details about the local extortion rackets.

Beerhouse, an iconic fixture in the Cape Town Central Business District (CBD), shuttered on July 31, citing serious death threats as the reason behind the closure. In a statement released earlier, Jorberg pinpointed the 2015 murder of one of his employees as a pivotal incident in the complex narrative intertwining local businesses with the criminal underworld supposedly led by Lifman and Nafiz Modack.

Jorberg elucidated that the coerced protection fees, amounting to R2,000 monthly, were part of a larger extortion scheme gripping numerous businesses across the town. He expressed his belief that it was the refusal to play along with these extortion demands that ultimately led to the death of his employee.

Publicly distancing himself from Lifman and Modack via social media, Jorberg highlighted the wider significance of Beerhouse's closure within South Africa's ongoing struggle against extortion and organized crime. His rhetoric has sparked considerable attention, catapulting the matter to the forefront of local media and online trending topics.

However, the allegations did not go unnoticed by Lifman, whose attorney Michael Strauss has since delivered a letter of demand to Jorberg. The letter addresses the defamation concerns, drawing attention to the impact Jorberg's claims have had on Lifman's reputation, insisting that such assertions presuppose criminality and demand undue retribution without due process. The letter calls for Jorberg to withdraw his statements and issue a public apology on all platforms, setting a firm deadline for compliance.

Meanwhile, Jorberg is not backing down easily. He has taken to Facebook, soliciting pro-bono legal assistance to formally lodge a case against Lifman and Hussein Taleb, citing charges of intimidation, extortion, and implications in murder. This brewing legal confrontation further paints a tumultuous picture of the battle against organized crime in Cape Town, which now transcends local encounters to encompass far-reaching implications for the reputations of those involved.