Two men appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Tuesday in connection with the murder of Wendy Kloppers, a City of Cape Town housing official. Kloppers was shot dead in her car outside a housing construction site last year.

The court heard that Warren-Lee Dennis and Imtiyaz Sedick would be added to the expanding case against Cape Town businessman Ralph Stanfield and his wife, Nicole Johnson. Dennis and Sedick are now the ninth and tenth accused in a case that has so far seen the arrest of eight other individuals.

This follows a wave of 28s gang-linked intimidation after the arrest of former City Councillor in charge of Human Settlements Malusi Booi, who had been in a corrupt relationship with the gong through gang boss Ralph Stanfield’s wife Nicole Johnson and her construction company Glomix.

The gang had been trying to resuscitate the relationship it had previously sustained through bribery by applying coercive tactics including in-person death threats to City officials.

Kloppers, aged 48, was murdered in her BMW, and a colleague was shot in the arm when they were attacked while parked outside the Symphony Way housing development in Delft on 16 February 2023. The attackers were believed to be part of a construction mafia targeting city projects.

Dennis and Sedick appeared alongside Jonathan Cloete, Shakeel Pelston, and Abraham Wilson, who had their first court appearance last week on charges of three murders and four attempted murders. They returned to court on Tuesday for a potential bail application.

The charges against Cloete, Pelston, and Wilson include two attempts on the life of nightclub owner Joel Booysen, son of alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome Booysen, and the murder of Kraaifontein gangster William "Red" Stevens, who was previously on trial with Booysen and his associate Mark Lifman.

The five men will return to court on Thursday to be joined with the case against Stanfield, his wife Nicole Johnson, and three others: Johannes "Bal" Abrahams, Denver Booysen, and José Brand. The latter group was arrested in connection with the attempted murder of a man accused by Johnson of skimming over R1 million from her and her husband's ATMs.

Outside the court, Western Cape police commissioner Brigadier Thembisile Patekile commented on the extensive investigation. "We are eating the elephant one bite at a time in this huge case against alleged extortionists and gunmen," he said. "We are not out of the woods yet. We must get to the main root that feeds the rest."

The City of Cape Town, which had offered a R1 million reward for information leading to arrests in the Kloppers case, welcomed the latest developments. Human Settlements MMC Carl Pophaim, who attended the court later, emphasized the city's firm stance against corruption. "Everyone involved in these activities will be fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law," he stated.

Pophaim highlighted the risks faced by other housing projects across the city, such as the Edward Avenue site in Ottery and the Gugulethu Infill housing project. "If we can hold these communities together, we can uproot and remove the minority responsible for these crimes," he said.

‍