The assassination of William ‘Red’ Stevens: a violent entrepreneur who symbolized South Africa’s evolving gang culture.

On 2 February 2021, William ‘Red’ Stevens – a ‘general’ in the notorious 27s gang – was sitting outside his home in Kraaifontein, a northern Cape Town suburb, when three gunmen shot him dead. On the night following the assassination, the area saw shootouts between rival gangs, with videos shared widely on social media.¹ These were reportedly reprisals sparked by the hit on Stevens: in the words of one source familiar with the workings of the ‘number’ gangs, ‘[Stevens’s] blood must be picked up’.² Albert Fritz, the Minister of Community Safety in Western Cape, called for calm in Kraaifontein.³

Steven’s death is a significant one. His criminal career, his death and its aftermath not only reveal much about the mythology and traditions of the number gangs, but also show how individual gangsters such as Stevens can bend those traditions in establishing their own criminal enterprise.

Members of the 27s gang surround the coffin of William ‘Red’ Stevens, a general of the 27s who was assassinated in early 2021.

Photo: Facebook

Breaking the bounds of gang tradition

The 27s, also known as the manne van son-op (‘the men of sunrise’), are one of South Africa’s infamous ‘number’ gangs – the 26s, 27s and 28s – that originated in South Africa’s prisons and are a powerful force in Cape Town’s underworld. In their over 100-year history, these number gangs have developed an intricate set of traditions that continue to be followed today. Many of these are centred around the military-style hierarchies adopted by the gangs.⁴

This militaristic ethos was in evidence at Stevens’s funeral, which was attended by over 2 000 people, many of whom were members of the 26s and 27s gangs. Stevens’s coffin was carried by four generals of the 27s gang. Gang members performed a ceremony, which included symbolic gestures such as the stamping of feet and a ‘folded arm’ stance (symbolizing a broken arm, a sign of mourning): this took the place of the customary 21-gun salute performed by other senior gang members, which could not be carried out because of heavy police and army presence around the funeral. The funeral also highlighted the mythological aspects of the number gangs’ tradition, with the ceremony according Stevens ‘ancestral status’ in the gang’s history.⁵

According to ‘number’ tradition, different number gangs have different roles within prisons. According to sources familiar with the gang, the 27s have long been considered as the ‘enforcers of the law’.⁶ The 27s use violence to negotiate better conditions for prison inmates and to enforce order among the other number gangs and non-gang-affiliated prisoners.⁷

Over time, relationships between number gangs and street gangs have evolved. Many street gangs today have a ‘shadow’ affiliation with a number gang – either the 26s or 28s – and many number recruits re-join their old street gangs upon their release from prison.⁸ No street gangs are affiliated to the 27s, who often regard themselves as the true holders of the ‘number’ traditions.

Street gangs also changed the state of play within prisons, with incarcerated leaders of street gangs offering the number gangs payment in exchange for protection and other favours. Some argue that the street gangs have ‘corrupted the number system’ and caused the strict orthodoxy of the number gangs to change.⁹

Other number gangs, in particular the 28s, have become notorious and highly profitable criminal enterprises outside of the prison bounds. The 27s, by contrast, have not become so prominent. 27s members, known for their violence in prison, often join street gangs, affiliated to other ‘numbers’, as violent enforcers on their release.¹⁰

But Stevens took a different approach. According to sources close to Stevens, he initially joined the 26s gang in prison, but then converted to the 27s. Leaders of the gang at the time had earmarked him as a recruit allegedly for his propensity for violence. In the words of one member of the 27s, ‘In prison “Red” took blood and stabbed his way into the 27s gang, abandoning the 26s … so now he was versed in both the 26 and 27 foundations’.¹¹ He attained the highest rank – general – in the 27s while in prison, and on his release ran the 27s’ street operations in Cape Town.¹²

Once on the street, Stevens capitalized on the gang’s strength as enforcers to sell protection to other gangs. According to one 27s member, ‘“Red” was different, he saw how the gedagte [policy] of the 27s [as enforcers within prisons] kept them away from money on the streets and so he reformatted himself as a stand-alone 27s gang on the streets and sold his assassins to the highest bidder. It was never done like that before.’¹³ Through this, Stevens’s band of 27s members was able to make money in a way more commonly seen among the 26s and 28s gangs. However, not all 27s on the streets embraced Stevens’s strategy.

The significance of the assassination

There are various theories as to the motive behind Stevens’s assassination. South Africa’s organized-crime police unit, the Hawks, have stated that they are investigating the possibility that it was connected to the prosecution of a murder case: that of steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein, who was killed on 18 August 2017.¹⁴

Sixteen suspects were arrested in connection with the Wainstein murder, reportedly including several hitmen belonging to the 27s gang.¹⁵ Most prominent among the accused were Stevens, alleged underworld figure and oft-described ‘controversial businessman’ Mark Lifman and Jerome ‘Donkie’ Booysen, the alleged leader of the Sexy Boys street gang.¹⁶ The arrest of three major underworld figures all together made headlines in December 2020.¹⁷

All three suspects – Stevens, Lifman and Booysen – were released on R100 000 (US$6 800) bail later that month. Days later Booysen was the target of an attempted hit,¹⁸ and about a month later Stevens was assassinated.

Booysen was again arrested along with five others on 18 February 2021 on separate charges, in what is considered a major drug operation by the Hawks. He now faces 96 charges relating to drug trafficking and dealing along with the five men arrested with him, and has in the past been arrested on similar charges.¹⁹ Booysen has received widespread attention in South African media for various alleged criminal activities and also for being the target of more than nine separate assassination attempts, one of which made headlines when hitmen targeted him at Cape Town International Airport.²⁰

The Wainstein murder case is part of a large-scale, ongoing, organized crime-related prosecution relating to activities in 2017. The charges allege that the accused (including Booysen, Lifman and the late Stevens) conducted operations across a wide area of Cape Town, contributing to a pattern of violent, organized criminal activity.²¹ It has been reported that, at the time, Booysen and Lifman were involved in a struggle for control of Cape Town’s lucrative nightclub security market (and the connected extortion rackets) with a group involving businessman Nafiz Modack and Booysen’s own brother, Colin Booysen.²² Modack and his associates were arrested on charges relating to extortion in December 2017, but were subsequently acquitted.²³ Lifman and Stevens (along with another accused, Naude) were accused of conspiring to murder Modack and his associates in November 2017.²⁴

Underworld sources assert that Stevens was assassinated because ‘his men’ – the 27s members accused of carrying out the Wainstein murder – had turned state’s witness and given the names of those who purchased the hit on Wainstein to the police, naming them as Lifman and ‘Donkie’ Booysen. According to a member of the 27s (who is also a member of the Americans street gang) ‘“Donkie” is a 26 and so the 27s don’t really care about giving them up, because they were going to jail anyways’.²⁵ Another source argued that there was a money-related dispute between Lifman, Booysen and Stevens.²⁶

There are also other theories surrounding the assassination, which can offer insight into the roles and rivalries of the number gangs. Some sources in the area assert that some members of the 27s have accused the 28s of carrying out the hit on Stevens as part of the continuing bad blood between the gangs.²⁷ Shootouts in the immediate aftermath of the hit were reportedly between the 27s and 28s.²⁸

Other sources suggest that the hit was connected to the rules governing how number prison gangs can operate as street gangs. As a leader of the 27s, Stevens was also a powerful figure governing the activities of the 26s, which is reportedly in some way governed by the 27s and 28s. Stevens reportedly opposed a move for the 26s to begin operating as a street gang, as this ‘contradicted the old scripture’ governing the numbers.²⁹ This angered 26s members who stood to gain power and wealth from being part of a 26s street gang.³⁰

The aftermath

The hit on Stevens is the highest-level assassination to target the 27s gang, and an example of the broader upheaval underway in South Africa’s underworld. Several major leaders who have controlled South Africa’s gang structures for decades have been targeted and killed, including leader of the Hard Livings gang Rashied Staggie, who was shot dead in Cape Town in 2019, and Ernie ‘Lastig’ Solomon, the leader of the Terrible Josters, who was shot dead in November 2020.³¹

Steven’s death will have repercussions within the 27s gang. Following the reprisals reported after the hit, the 27s entered into a formal period of mourning, according to a source familiar with the gang.³² This is ordered by senior gang members, and over seven days inmates will shave their heads and fighting within prisons is kept to a minimum. After the week of mourning, senior gang members hold meetings to strategize and investigate the hit. They may order actions such as an increase in stambula (intensified gang recruitment).

The death of Stevens may also lead to other members being promoted. Given that Stevens was such a senior member, his killing may prompt the 27s to change their tactics. For example, the gang could choose to align with other gangs to take revenge for the hit, something which the 27s have not often done in the past.

Stevens’s assassination therefore shows two competing forces in how the number gangs operate. The rituals surrounding his death, the internal gang ‘investigations’ and shifts in the hierarchy illustrate how the militaristic, quasi-governmental mythology of the number gangs – where they present themselves to their members and outsiders as a kind of ‘shadow state’ – is a powerful force shaping their behaviour. But Stevens’s actual criminal career – shaping the 27s into a new form of criminal enterprise, and dealing with other major gangsters – also shows how this mythology is a flexible facade that can evolve where opportunity arises.

Crowds gather at the funeral of William ‘Red’ Stevens, which was attended by over 2 000 people.

Photo: Facebook

Notes