KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Public Works and Infrastructure Martin Meyer (centre) visited eight construction sites across the province that were disrupted by the construction mafia last week.
KwaZulu-Natal Public Works and Infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer has big plans to clamp down on the construction mafia that has held up key building projects across the province and to fix up scores of dilapidated government-owned buildings.
Meyer, in an interview with the Mail & Guardian this week, highlighted his new strategy to deal with illicit groups, that have wanted to extort payments of up to 30% of the cost of construction projects, without doing any work, and to ensure that local communities benefit from government contracts.
The now national construction mafia problem emerged in KZN in around 2014 before spreading to other provinces including the Western Cape, Gauteng and Mpumalanga, when groups of people identified themselves generally as “business forums”, some of them legitimately wanting to benefit from work on construction projects, but others seeking to extort payments from the government without necessarily working on sites.
When construction companies and the government refuse to bow to their demands for work or payments they protest on sites, threaten workers and arrive armed with AK-47’s to demand work.
According to the City of Cape Town, these extortionists have delayed transport projects to the value of R60 million across the city, and according to the Gauteng Human Settlements Department, four sites including a large retail development in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni, and a provincial government project worth almost R1 billion in Randfontein, West Rand District Municipality, have been affected.
In KZN, the completion of Menzi High School in Umlazi has been delayed over the past three years and the forums have created problems during the revamp of King Dinuzulu Hospital, which requires specialised construction for tuberculosis isolation wards.
Recognising the national problem, Meyer said he is taking immediate steps to deal with the crisis — and not only in KZN. He has written to national minister Dean Macpherson to request a meeting with all nine provincial MECs to develop a national policy and strategy to stamp out the problem.
“We have to firstly distinguish between business forums and the so-called construction mafia because many of these construction mafia groups will call themselves business forums as well. Right now, we are trying to sift out who we can talk to and who we can’t,” Meyer said.
“I’m willing to engage with anybody that comes with us on the flag of truth, to speak to us as equals with legitimate concerns. If people come with their big double cabs and AK-47s to one of our sites, we will not engage with them,” Meyer said.
“We won’t be bullied into engaging or giving away our contracts. We are very happy to engage with different business forums and legitimate community representation, which we’ll be doing starting this week and hopefully early next week,” he said.
He said there are legitimate forums that want to access work in line with the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) regulations which had in 2017 stipulated that 30% of public procurement contracts over the value of R30 million be subcontracted to designated groups such as small businesses.
The regulations were found to be unlawful by the constitutional court in 2022 and the rules have since changed, although there is still a requirement to subcontract work to the groups.
Meyer said national construction companies are avoiding KZN because of the pervasive problem which has spilled over onto private construction sites, after the government previously gave in to their demands, and unemployment rose because there was no money to hire legitimate local workers.
Meyer said four legitimate business forums had already approached him to speak about the issue.
His strategy is multipronged and includes engaging with the forums and setting up a special task team with local traditional leaders and councillors; community members; public works officials and the police to ensure that local people benefit from project work opportunities. He plans to work with the community from the moment his department receives a request for a new project so that locals are notified early on to take ownership of the project before the construction mafia even enters the scene.
“If we need bricklayers and there are no bricklayers in the community, we will help train them. We will make sure from a departmental side that the percentages are there and we will be closing off the space [from the mafia],” Meyer said.
“It’s just getting the community to take ownership and then the community will themselves say, ‘We don’t want you here. We’re pretty happy with what’s happening.’ That is our positive approach to it but it doesn’t mean these guys are not going to try their luck,” he said.
He had written to Macpherson asking for the issue be dealt with on a national level.
“I’ve asked for a meeting with all nine MECs of public works, himself as the minister, the minister of police and all the MECs for community safety, which in our case, is the premier, so that we have a high level engagement of all role players and sit down and say, ‘What is the overall strategy, from a law enforcement side, going to be to deal with it; how do we make sure they have the right resources?’” he said.
Meyer added that his department had also begun an audit of the 13 000 buildings it owns in the province to ascertain their condition and whether they can be renovated and used by the government, or fixed up through a public/private partnership and let or, as a last resort, sold.
He said the provincial government was spending R900 million a month on rent and more than R1.2 billion on rates.
Macpherson said he had received the letter and scheduled a meeting with Meyer to discuss the matter and “chart a way forward”.
“The meeting is in line with my commitment to work with all roleplayers across the country to solve the biggest issues facing the department and how we can turn the country into a construction site,” Macpherson said.
“One of my firm commitments is to host a stakeholder engagement in KwaZulu-Natal within the coming weeks, to be attended by all stakeholders including MECs of the entire country, to discuss how we can tackle the issue of construction mafia, as well as unlock value in our public sector assets.”
“I think we will find common agreement in our stakeholder engagement that we must be successful in stopping these mafia practices and bringing our projects back online.
“I have repeatedly said that, as a department, we will not be negotiating with the construction mafia and will work to ensure that the rule of law is restored on construction sites across the country,” he said.
“We simply cannot allow infrastructure projects to be delayed or cancelled due to the rise of lawlessness and will therefore be working with other stakeholders — including the minister of police and MECs — to bring an end to the construction mafia once and for all.”
KZN SAPS spokesperson Robert Netshiunda said the police applauded the plan to form a multi-stakeholder team to deal with the problem.
“SAPS welcomes all efforts that are aimed at creating a safe and secure economic environment for all residents of KwaZulu-Natal. A multidisciplinary approach is needed to rid the province of all kinds of crime,” Netshiunda said.