For six years, Dimpho Jikumlambo and her family have lived in a dilapidated community hall with 93 other people.
The 27-year-old from Gugulethu, Cape Town, thought 2022 would be the year she moved into one of the 730 houses being built nearby. But in March a construction worker was shot on the Luyolo site and work halted. It has not yet resumed.
The shooting is believed to be related to the so-called “construction mafia”, whose exploits are the subject of the latest report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, published this week.
Titled Extortion or Transformation?, the report tracks the development since 2014 of “local business forums” which often arrive heavily armed at construction sites and shut them down unless their demands — often 30% of the projects' value — are met.
In 2019 alone, according to report author Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane, the forums disrupted 183 infrastructure and construction projects worth more than R63bn,
Jikumlambo's concerns are more immediate and down-to-earth: “Everyone here gets a fever every month. Everyone is sick,” she said this week in the community hall.
“The toilets get blocked from time to time and water is leaking from the pipes. There is no privacy, men and women sleep in this open hall. The windows are broken.”
Western Cape infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers visited Luyolo last week and urged community members to report what they know about the men who have halted work on 730 new homes.
He said his department had held several meetings in Gugulethu in an attempt to “identify perpetrators and embark on a safety and security plan to deal with these construction mafia”.
Simmers said reports of extortion at other sites were reported in the previous financial years, and seven projects were affected. The department interdicted members of a business forum from interfering with construction work.
Irish-Qhobosheane traced the genesis of the invasions to the KwaZulu-Natal communities of Umlazi and KwaMashu between 2014 and 2015 when two groups — Delangokubona Business Forum and KwaMashu Youth in Action Movement — emerged.
The groups later merged after targeting projects in the township and formed the Federation for Radical Economic Transformation, which later became the Black Business Forum. The groups demanded 30% of the contract value of projects.
“Clear links exist between some of the business forum groups and certain political players, with business forums being accused of acting as surrogates for certain politicians,” Irish-Qhobosheane found. “Similarly there are emerging links between some of these business forums and elements within the mass transit taxi industry, with some in the taxi industry being used to enforce interdisciplinary measures within the forums.”
Irish-Qhobosheane said businesses in the construction sector had turned to the courts in a bid to stop the disruptions and 51 interdicts had been granted.
“Overall, these interdicts have not had the desired effect and have done little to deter business forums. A key factor in the success of business forums has been the weak response from the state,” she said.
Webster Mfebe, CEO of the South African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors, told Irish-Qhobosheane the success of the KZN groups quickly spawned copycats.
“Violence begets violence. When people have seen that extortion methods yield results, they mimic the tactics and strategies,” he said.
By 2018, the construction mafia’s activities had reached Gauteng, and the Eastern Cape was affected in 2019.
The report said: “Construction company Aveng and its joint venture partner, the Germany-based Strabag International, terminated a R1.5bn project for the Mtentu Bridge in the Eastern Cape. The termination occurred after gun-wielding business forum members threatened staff and made the site inaccessible for 84 days.”
Aveng said in the report: “Our German partners said they have worked in 80 countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq, but have never experienced anything like this.”
In the Western Cape, a R2.9bn German oil storage investment in Saldanha Bay stalled when an armed gang invaded the site.
Black Business Forum spokesperson Sifiso Shezi denied any wrongdoing in an interview with the Sunday Times.
“It [the Global Initiative report] is a very scathing attack,” he said. “Unfortunately it's a gross generalisation. The attacks on small black businesses have been consistent. We are engaging the formal sector about issues affecting black businesses.”
Shezi said violent organisations were piggybacking on his organisation's mission to ensure that black businesses get a “share of the economy”.
Police spokesperson Col Athlenda Mathe said multidisciplinary teams “have been established in all provinces that deal with the scourge of criminality on the infrastructure projects nationwide”. Mathe said cases are centralised and investigated by the unit, which had made 522 arrests and secured 14 convictions in the past two years.
“Meetings are held with different business stakeholders from construction network companies and the civil engineering sector, and this is co-ordinated at national level,” said Mathe.
“The national and provincial forums are conducted monthly to co-ordinate and monitor the reported cases.”
Irish-Qhobosheane recommended that the state develop “a more comprehensible strategy to deal with the problem of systematic corruption, one that includes a more proactive response from the criminal justice sector”.
The report said: “An environment needs to be created that will encourage victims of extortion to feel safe enough to report extortion. Strong partnerships need to be developed between government, business and communities.”
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