Julita Explores: Crime kingpin’s slaying brings back time I told him he needs Jesus

A monthly column in which Julita Kok shares on living adventurously with God

Many years ago, around 2013 I would say, my office received a phone call from a nightclub manager wanting to meet with me. He said that they opened up a new nightclub in an area not too far from our offices and it was not working. Business was bad. And everywhere he phoned for help, people gave him my name. 

This made no sense at all as we were in the Christian music industry. Worlds apart from what they were doing. So I told Adele in my office to say “no” to a meeting. I did not want to be involved in nightclubs! How would that look being manager to many Christian artists and bands?!  So I forgot about it. Definitely of no interest to me. 

But that evening, when I spent time with the Father, He asked me: “Did you ask me if you should meet with this gentleman?” To me it was a no-brainer. “No Lord! He is into nightclubs. Not our scene at all. I want nothing to do with it.” And then I hear this:“I want you to meet with him”. 

I was the weirdest thing — God is telling me to meet with the nightclub manager. So, I asked Adele to set up the meeting. When Adele and I pitched up for the meeting, there were a few gentlemen present — the manager who phoned us, another two guys and a very good-looking gentleman who the manager introduced as his boss and the owner of the nightclub. All very polite and all apparently bodybuilders. Big guys. And there were some more bodybuilder guys at the cars in which they had arrived.

Now, I need to backtrack a little. Those were my early years in NueLight. I was in the Christian Music Industry in South Africa. There is no big money in this industry. Those years ago, my monthly expenses in NueLight were R25 000. And I battled to get that in. We did it, but it was always a battle. Working long, long hours, living on the bread line so to speak. So I went to the Father and said: “Lord, there is no money here. The Christian artists just do not have money to pay us for the work. And I know I have to help them, but I need money. Your Word says that the wealth of the wicked will go to the righteous and I want that money. If your word says it, then I can lay claim on it.” And that was my prayer and I forgot about it. 

So, when I met with these nightclub men, I thought of that R25 000 and I said to myself, if they want something from me, I will charge them R25 000 per month paid upfront monthly. They will never pay that. It is just too much. So I listened to their dilemma and I just immediately knew the solution they needed. I just knew! Bottom line, they had this very upmarket nightclub in the heart of a very Afrikaans community. The Afrikaans people do not nightclub. They “Sokkie Sokkie” (a very Afrikaans type of dance style; not like a nightclub vibe at all). So the boss asked me to give him an idea of what I would do to turn the club around and I told him just one or two things. And he loved my advice. He said: “How much?”  Now, of course, I had already decided that I definitely did not want to be involved with a nightclub, so I said:“ R25 000 a month for three months and this place will be showing profit”, knowing that they would never go for that.

“Deal” he said and put out his hand. I looked at Adele, never expecting this!!!!  But as a child of God my yes is to be yes and my no, no. So I shook his hand and he said: “Julita, just one thing. I pay cash only, so you are to collect the R25 000 from my office”. That was a little strange, but it was what it was, so I agreed. He gave me the address to his offices and I went there the next morning. It was a house in the Main Street of Sea Point, Cape Town. Very neat. But there were a lot of bodybuilders at the gate and inside the office. There was a receptionist who told me to wait to see the boss. 

It was an interesting environment to me. I was not sure what their business was. except that they owned some nightclubs in Cape Town. But the whole environment was interesting and a little strange. But I thought nothing of it and was called to the boss’s office. He was very friendly and nice to me. We spoke about what it was that I would be doing and how it would work, and he was happy. I was going to bring live Afrikaans bands into his venue and that would draw the crowds to his club and people would be able to Sokkie Sokkie to their type of music. He paid me R25 000 in cash. which I put in my backpack as I left. On my way out, I passed an office and the door was a little open and I thought I saw a big table with stacks of cash on it. But it was just a momentary glimpse, so I never gave it a second thought.

The nightclub started booming with the bands I brought. We had meetings once a month and in these meetings, all his nightclub owners and their wives were present. This was very strange to me and what fascinated me was the respect they had for the boss. I could not put my finger on it, but l realised that he owned them. These huge bodybuilder men and their wives bowing down to the boss. That was what they were doing. He was like a king with his subjects.

Afterwards, when I sat down and thought about what I had experienced in those meetings, I realised, the respect came from fear. But the boss was always very, very nice and polite to me and he was happy with what was happening at the club. On Friday and Saturday nights, when I had bands there, I would visit the club, and I found that besides the big, bodybuilder men at the entrance, it was just a normal Afrikaans Sokkie Sokkie club. I even told them to do a braai on those nights and sell boerewors rolls and things like that — food true to our Afrikaans traditions and he listened and it worked so well. The club did not have a bad vibe around it like I would expect from a nightclub, because people came for the bands playing –not because it was a club.

So we were in the pound seats with the R25 000 per month. I still made money as usual, to pay the bills, but now I had R25 000 a month extra which I could invest in Christian artists and we did quite a few projects with that R75 000 in total. 

After the first month, I had dinner with my children one evening and told them what was happening and my one daughter, who at the time worked in the law department of a very high-profile property administrator’s office, said: ”Mommy, is this man called Mark Lifman?” 

I was very surprised that she knew him. “Yes, he is. Do you know him?”  And she nearly freaked out. She said: ”Do you know who this is mommy? Do you know who you are dealing with?” And I was just like “…he is a very nice man…he has some other nightclubs…that it what I know”.  

In a very high pitched voice she is like: ”Google him Mommy. Google him!!!”  So I did and oh my word, everywhere I looked it said “alleged underworld crime boss; head of the Mafia in Cape Town; kingpin of the underworld”. 

My daughter told me that their company administered some of Lifman’s properties and that he was a very, very, very wealthy man, but there were all these allegations. A very nice man she said, but not to be trusted and not to be betrayed. If you did business with him, you better deliver, she said.

I was in total shock, because I knew God had said that I should meet with him and he was just so nice!!! How could such a man be a crime boss? I read up on him some more and some of the stories were horrific. So next time I went to his office in Sea Point, I realised, the big guys at the gate were bodyguards — not just bodybuilders. He was surrounded by bodyguards. I had never realised.

That day at his office was an amazing day. I am not afraid of speaking truth and when God is in something with me, I know that there is a reason. So I sat in his office and I said: ”Mark, I Google’d you”.  He laughed and said: ”So what does Google say?” And I am like: ”You are the head of the Mafia. You are a bad guy. You might not be the one doing the dirty work, but you are the one giving the instructions!” 

He just laughed and said not to believe everything I read on Google. So, I said: “You know I am a Christian and serve the Lord. I have been very straight about that but I am also very interested in how such a nice guy as you, ended up here. Tell me”. 

So he briefly told me about how poor they were and that as a kid he did not even have school shoes.  And how, at a very young age, he started selling cookies door to door and then other opportunities came. He said people realised how intelligent he was and he always thought of solutions to challenges and he soon became a businessman, mainly in property. He just swore that he would never be poor again. He shared a little about his mother and that was it. 

So I looked at him and said: ”Mark, you can never do business with me if God does not allow it, for I am His child. The fact that I am sitting here, means He knows your name and He is reaching out to you”. I told him that now that I knew, I would be praying for him. He just laughed and said I made him think of his mother. 

I had previously told him about my business, the Christian artists and events and he said: ”Julita, if you ever want to do an event in the stadium, I will give you the money”. I answered and said:. ”You know that it will be a Christian event” and he said: ”Everybody needs to believe in something that will give them hope and make them feel good. I don’t care if it is a Christian event”. I, of course never took him up on that offer. 

He also told me about some of the charity projects that he was involved with and at that time, one that was very close to his heart he said, was giving school shoes to 2 000 children a year. I told him: ”Just remember that your good deeds will not take you to Heaven. It cannot be bought. A surrendered life to Jesus will”. He just laughed and again said I reminded him of his mother.

After the three months, I stepped away. Our contract was finished. He closed that club three months later. It never worked without the bands. I never saw him again, except on the news or in the newspaper for “alleged crimes”. I had his cell number on my WhatsApp and often reminded him that I was still praying for him and would receive a smiley face back. And then, one day, the number did not work anymore. Or he had blocked me, hehehehehe.

And this past Sunday, Mark Lifman was assassinated. Live by the sword, die by the sword. they say. It is many years after our “business”. But God never allowed me to forget about Mark. I have been praying for him all these years and I read the comments after his slaying…”this filth should have been taken out long ago; good riddance; cleaner streets now” …many such things and they are not wrong. He was a bad, bad man who became greedy and just wanted more and more. And I think eventually he was so deep in it, that even if he had wanted to, he could not walk free from that world. It would not let him. But my heart was so sore when I heard that he was shot, because “Where did he open his eyes on the other side?” And to think that I had been given an opportunity to change something, but did not was heart breaking to me. Did I do enough? Should I have gone back? 

But, I also realise that he made all the choices and I know that God gave him an opportunity (and I truly believe that God sent others like me –many opportunities). He was such a nice guy, but an evil man. He wanted to own it all. I never saw him smoke or drink alcohol. I once asked him about it. I said: “I watched the Godfather movie. This world of yours is full of drugs and very bad things. Why have I never seen you drink or even smoke a cigarette?” And he said this: “Julita, I can never ever afford for one moment not to be totally conscious and in control. My mind has to be very sharp and alert at all times.”

So, now the whole world knows who he was. It is splattered all over the news everywhere. And I think about those three months, long ago. The wealth of the wicked shall go to the righteous. I used that money to further the music of Christian artists, so this “underworld” has seed in the ground that God gave the opportunity for. How will that harvest play out?? I do not know what plans God has for the people of this very bad underground world. But I do know that He does not want one to go unsaved. Even a Mark Lifman — the wicked of the wicked. God sure has a sense of humour. When I said: “Lord, the wealth of the wicked”, He used the most wicked of them all!

What did all of this do in my life? I am at a place of: “Lord, I am not doing enough. Where did he open his eyes?” But of course, I also understand choices. So I am asking the Lord for opportunities to tell lost souls about the goodness of God, for the Word says: “The Goodness of God will lead men to repentance.” I want to tell the stories of the goodness of God and how Jesus loves everybody, even the Mark Lifmans of the world, for I knew, God brought me in contact with him and not without reason. At the end, it was his choice though. And who knows what goes on between a man and God…….

My prayer for all of us is to open our eyes and ears to the opportunities God brings along our paths and to closely listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, as to what to do with these opportunities. And not to let one soul be lost…..

May we continue to be labourers in His vineyard.

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