Construction mafia sidekicks threaten Cape Town officials inside metro’s offices

[Nat Quinn]

Associates of a Cape Town gang leader demanding control of lucrative construction contracts have allegedly threatened a city official inside the metro’s offices, Sunday Times reports.

Three sidekicks of alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield reportedly entered the mayoral office complex illegally in the middle of the day on 21 February to confront human settlements official Xolani Joja.

They wanted all construction projects in the municipality transferred to Glomix, a company controlled by Stanfield.

Sunday Times pointed out that Joja’s office was on the same floor as the city’s mayor — Geordin Hill-Lewis.

The trio — Riaan Koeberg, Mario Brand, and Donovan Koopman — claimed to represent a nonprofit company called Group 4 Developers (G4D).

In July, G4D posted a video on its Facebook page showing Koeberg boasting about confronting Joja at a community protest.

“Do I look familiar?” he asked Joja. “I was the one barging into your office unannounced, without any appointment. Do you remember me?”

He also threatened Hill-Lewis, saying if he ever set foot in Mitchells Plain as mayor, he would “see what will happen”.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, Mayor of the City of Cape Town

The unannounced office visit occurred five days after city official Wendy Kloppers was shot dead while sitting in her car at the construction site of the Delft Symphony Way housing project on 16 February 2023.

The city is offering a R1 million reward for information leading to the successful prosecution of the murderers.

Koeberg and Koopman denied demanding that contracts be handed over to Glomix.

Instead, they maintained they were offering to “mediate” between the city and the construction mafia.

Koopman said their inflammatory language should not be taken literally. However, he acknowledged the fact that people getting murdered over the issue might lead to a literal interpretation being logical.

Koeberg did not deny his link to Stanfield, but Koopman said he was no longer involved with gangs and had never met with Stanfield.

Stanfield and his wife are currently in custody awaiting trial for attempted murder, robbery, and assault relating to an altercation with an employee who they allege stole R1.3 million that was supposed to be fed into an ATM they own.

City of Cape Town offices. Credit: Google Street View/Google

Construction mafia activity has intensified in Cape Town over the past few months, delaying major infrastructure developments.

In response, the city recently launched an anti-extortion campaign dubbed “Enough is Enough!” with a 24-hour anonymous reporting hotline and rewards system to encourage residents to come forward with information on construction mafia activity.

The city had a record R11-billion infrastructure budget in the 2023/2024 financial year, of which 73% was intended to benefit low-income communities.

“We have staff and contractors working on the ground more than ever, especially in vulnerable communities impacted by crime. We cannot afford project delays due to criminal activity,” Hill-Lewis said.

“The aim of the campaign is to increase public reporting of extortion activity, with specialised City investigators feeding this information into the South African Police Service anti-extortion unit.”

“Law enforcement is also regularly escorting City teams and contractors on request in hotspot areas, and additional project security requirements have been built into project contracts.”

“Our staff and contractors are under instruction to make sure that any extortion attempts are reported to authorities every single time, so that we build a case record and push back against the criminals harming the interests of communities.”

In early October 2023, Hill-Lewis also told Cape Talk the city had observed a very noticeable increase in extortion attempts or incidents at its construction sites.

“We currently have 15 construction sites that are shut down, ranging in size from tiny construction sites like an installation of new electricity cables, right up to our biggest housing project in the whole city — our Delft Symphony Housing project, which is 3,000 units and where there has not been construction for several months.”

In August 2023, the Western Cape government also said it had lost around 125 housing opportunities and R160 million due to construction mafias illegally renting out shacks on land earmarked for development.

In addition to housing developments, the mafia activity has delayed key infrastructure rollouts, including building bus depots for the MyCiti network and various road construction projects.

 

source:Construction mafia sidekicks threaten Cape Town officials inside metro’s offices (mybroadband.co.za)

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