CAPE TOWN'S POPULAR high-end night spots attract an array of clientele,
from young partygoers to politicians, models to moguls. In parallel with
this is a sleazy underworld where control of the lucrative
nightclub-security scene is the ultimate prize, for which some are
prepared to pay using extortion and murder as the main currencies.
South Africa's private-security sector is massive, an informal police
force increasingly relied on as confidence in traditional policing
wanes. But it's an industry tainted by ties to underworld figures and
events.
The Mother City's security turf wars have their roots in pre-democratic
South Africa, and branch into Cape Flats gang battles raging since the
1990s. Dotting this landscape are colourful and contentious figures -
Yuri 'The Russian' Ulianitski, nightclub-security kingpin and rumoured
apartheid-state operative Cyril Beeka, convicted drug dealer Radovan
Krejčíř, controversial businessman Nafiz Modack and Mark Lifman. Making
surprise appearances are high-ranking police officers as well as
prominent members of the ANC and government.
Journalist Caryn Dolley has interviewed numerous criminal and suspects,
often putting herself in danger in pursuit of the truth. Here she weaves
her research into a story that lays bare the reality of Cape Town's
nightclub-security wars: a vast network of information and
misinformation in which innocent members of the public enjoying a night
out inadvertently rub shoulders with some of the city's most infamous
criminals.
