42 Cape Town construction projects hit by extortion and ‘construction mafia’ activity

At least 42 construction projects faced extortion, intimidation and construction-mafia activity in Cape Town over the last five years.

This is according to Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia when he was responding to parliamentary questions from ActionSA MP Dereleen James.

James has asked about the total number of construction projects that have been affected by extortion, intimidation and construction-mafia activity in the City of Cape Town in the past five financial years.

She also wanted to know the rand value of the affected projects as well as the number of arrests made and convictions arising from the arrests.

In his response, Cachalia said 12 construction projects in the City of Cape Town were affected by extortion in the past five financial years.

He also said a further 16 construction projects were affected by intimidation during the same period.

“Fourteen construction and/or infrastructure projects in the City of Cape Town were affected by construction-mafia activity in the past five financial years.

Cachalia put the total rand value of the affected projects at R1.483 billion.

However, neither arrests nor convictions have been in Cape Town made to date.

“No arrests have been made. No arrests have resulted in convictions,” according to the response.

The figures provided by Cachalia were in contrast to those he provided in May earlier this year in connection with extortion syndicates operating at construction sites, schools, transport routes and municipal projects that were reported nationally over the last three years.

He had not provided a breakdown of arrests by province other than the categories of projects that were targeted by extortionist.

He had stated that 44 cases were investigated, with 36 cases linked to syndicates operating at construction sites, one at schools, six on transport routes and one involving municipal projects.

The minister has indicated that 73 arrests were made and 56 arrests stemmed from construction site-related cases while six were linked to municipal project cases, eight transport route incidents and three were linked to school-linked extortion activities.