‘Construction mafia’ disrupting post-unrest rebuilding effort

Efforts to rebuild properties, including shopping malls, that were looted, damaged and burnt during the recent unrest and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are being disrupted by the activities of business forums or the so-called ‘construction mafia’.

These disruptions prompted the SA Property Owners Association (Sapoa) and Black Business Council for the Built Environment (BBCBE) to express their grave concern about construction projects worth billions of rand being violently disrupted and halted and the harm these disruptions are causing to investor confidence in the South African economy.

“The reality is that, whether it’s the ‘construction mafia’ or development forums, there are groups out there that are disrupting the rebuild effort after the unrest,” said Sapoa CEO Neil Gopal on Tuesday.

“It’s not on all the sites but there is a definite sense that we are getting that they [the groupings] are trying to extort money from mall owners,” he added.

“They are stopping certain small SMME [small, medium and micro enterprises] cleaning companies from the communities themselves, for example, from doing any work until the mall owners negotiate or have a meeting with these groupings.”

Sapoa and the BBCBE both appealed to their members not to succumb to the intimidation and violent tactics and to increase the presence of private security around construction sites.

Joining forces

The organisations said they have been engaging with the South African Police Services (SAPS) to join forces with the industry to ensure their efforts are coordinated and the responses are measured “as we do not want to endanger the lives of anyone on these sites and beyond”.

Sapoa and the BBCBE stressed there is a fundamental difference between genuine, hard-working entrepreneurs looking to be part of this supply chain and the ‘construction mafia’.

“People who invade sites illegally, armed to the teeth, threaten law-abiding citizens with violence, intimidation and in some cases result in murder, are syndicates whose primary objective is to use violence as a means to an end,” they said.

Sapoa and the BBCBE called for a collaborative and consultative approach to actively engage with stakeholders in an attempt to mitigate possible disruptions and stoppages on construction sites “as developers and contractors of all sizes are adversely affected by this criminal activity”.

The organisations referred to a Moneyweb report in June 2018 about the ‘construction mafia’ operating in and around KwaZulu-Natal, adding that these local gangs have organised themselves into so-called business forums and “pounce on construction sites and threaten to shut them down unless they are given 30% of the work”.

They said the ‘construction mafia’ has now settled in Johannesburg and is operating in a similar manner.

However, Gopal stressed that Sapoa and the BBCBE’s immediate concern now is the disruption of the rebuilding of malls and property damaged in the recent unrest.

Gopal indicated that Sapoa is aware of and welcomes all efforts by other organisations dealing with this issue.

Engagement

SA Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec) CEO Webster Mfebe confirmed last month that the forum has established channels to engage with the structures of business forums to intervene in site disruptions.

Mfebe said Safcec has a written undertaking from the Black Business Federation that the federation will work with Safcec in particular in trying to end disruptions on site.

“This is very progressive and a milestone in bringing peace and stability to construction sites,” he said.

Mfebe said when construction sites are now disrupted, a rival business forum is involved and the federation contacts the people involved and mediates to make them stop disrupting the site.

Gopal said the authorities failed the property industry during the recent unrest and looting.

“I cannot understand or fathom why they would want to be negotiating with people who are carrying automatic weapons.

“These people should be arrested and face the full might of the law. If the president [Cyril Ramaphosa] is serious about law and order, then they must act on it, because I can guarantee it’s going to lead to further disinvestment,” he said.

Gopal added that an important factor, which might be part of the problem, is that South Africa only has about 187 000 police personnel, of which about 30 000 are office bound, for 60 million people.

“That statistic alone tells me it’s impossible for the police to manage normal day-to-day crime, including this issue.

“I think what this requires is probably a very high level intervention from the president’s office, almost a security group itself, that is tasked with nothing else but to deal with these groupings because I don’t think SAPS has the manpower to deal with it.

“There are too few police on the ground,” he said. “That is the problem.”