War declared on construction mafias BY Luke Fraser

The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial government says it is working hard to tackle construction mafias, which are costing the economy billions.

According to the State Investigating Unit (SIU), the construction mafia refers to extortion groups that seek to forcefully extract protection fees from local construction companies.

They can also extort a portion of the cost of an infrastructure project or allow members of the mafia to work on the site.

These mafias are estimated to cost the economy around R68 billion.

A report by Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime showed that South Africa’s construction mafia originated in KZN in 2014/15 when two “business forums” emerged.

The group would merge and start invading construction sites across the province, ordering a percentage of the contract value and employment for their forum members.

As reported by the SABC and Newzroom Afrika, newly appointed KZN Public Works and Infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer said the department is working on a plan to stop the construction mafia.

Meyer said that a task team, including roleplayers from the construction industry, civic society, community policing forums and those on the ground, will be created.

He added that the department is willing to work with legitimate business forums to ensure that tenders are more widespread and that certain companies do not receive beneficial treatment.

However, he said that it is illegal for the construction mafia to come to building sites with rifles and threaten people’s lives and will not be tolerated.

Not going away anytime soon

Despite Meyer’s commitment to solving the province’s issues, construction mafias are not likely to disappear soon.

“Extortion in the construction sector has reached worryingly high levels, derailing and delaying projects worth billions of rands… [but] with no signs of this trend reversing, construction firms should build extortion preparation and best practices into their planning ahead of every project,” said Roelof Viljoen from Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA).

With these mafias becoming engrained in South Africa, Viljoen said that construction firms need to plan for the worst.

Deon van Zyl, chair of the Western Cape Property Developers Forum, also noted that construction mafias target public projects far more than private ones due to cumbersome government processes like procurement.

Unlike private sector projects, where individuals or teams work throughout an entire project, public projects are often a “relay,” where several departments carry out certain roles throughout the process. Van Zyl said that this leaves many projects as “sitting ducks.”

source:War declared on construction mafias – BusinessTech