Construction sector under scrutiny as hundreds of Western Cape contractors found non-compliant

Hundreds of contractors in the Western Cape have been found flouting occupational health and safety, labour and other regulatory requirements this year, raising concerns about weak oversight, undocumented workers and repeat offenders in the construction sector.

The Western Cape construction industry is facing growing scrutiny over regulatory non-compliance, with 891 contractors found to be non-compliant since the beginning of the year, according to the department of employment and labour.

The department said 543 contravention notices and 348 compliance orders had been issued, while 121 contractors had been referred for prosecution.

Department spokesperson Teboho Thejane said the violations included 543 occupational health and safety contraventions, 85 breaches of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), 178 involving the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and 85 related to the Compensation Fund.

The figures come amid broader concerns about accountability in an industry where projects involve multiple layers of contractors and subcontractors, making it difficult to establish who is ultimately responsible for workers, safety and compliance on construction sites.

In May, the government blacklisted 52 construction companies for poor performance, fraud and contractual failures. Two months back, a multidisciplinary compliance at a major construction site on Lower Long Street in the CBD uncovered 79 undocumented foreigners working on the project.

The Building Industry Bargaining Council (BIBC) said the cases highlighted what it described as a deeper, systemic culture of non-compliance in South Africa’s construction sector.

BIBC spokesperson Danie Hattingh said many contractors had been barred from operating until 2029 for offences including falsifying B-BBEE certificates and invoicing for work that had not been completed.

But, he said, these offences were symptoms of a wider problem rather than the root cause.

“What we are seeing is a pattern where non-compliance in one area is almost always mirrored across others. It is rarely isolated to non-compliance with the BIBC only,” Hattingh said.

The implications extend beyond administrative breaches, with poor compliance potentially contributing to substandard work, project delays, site failures and safety risks.

The BIBC said non-compliant contractors could also gain an unfair competitive advantage by exploiting labour and cutting costs in ways that compliant businesses cannot.

The problem is compounded by the ability of some repeat offenders to re-enter the industry under new entities.

The trend towards ‘fronting’ companies is widespread and complex. Even if a new entity has no record of non-compliance, it can still be the same operators, making it difficult for clients and procurement officials to know who they’re really dealing with.