Construction mafia arrests show some progress, says public works minister

More than 700 cases of construction-related extortion and intimidation have been reported country-wide, with only 241 arrests and 176 convictions since last November, public works & infrastructure ministerDean Macpherson said on Thursday.

Speaking at the National Construction Summit in Boksburg, East Rand, Macpherson said the figures showed some progress in the fight against extortion since last year’s Durban summit and the signing of the Durban declaration with the Treasury and SA Police Service (SAPS).

“That’s not just progress on paper; it reflects our determination to dismantle organised criminal networks and put an end to their extortion of the industry,” said Macpherson.

“In KwaZulu-Natal, previously considered the hotspot for construction mafia activity, we’ve seen a significant drop in monthly site disruptions from over 60 incidents a month last year to fewer than 10 a month today.”

He said the progress was attributable to the co-ordinated action taken with the police, business and public entities.

The minister said the public works & infrastructure department had established dedicated hotlines for communities to report construction stoppages and it worked with construction companies.

Read: Cyril Ramaphosa vows crackdown on ‘construction mafias’

“SAPS and the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority are now working together to dismantle these criminal networks,” he said.

Macpherson said his department had moved to tackle the structural weaknesses that left infrastructure projects exposed. These ranged from unclear regulations and poor community engagement to inadequate project preparation.

“To close those gaps, we’ve finalised the integrated social facilitation framework, which will be a game changer for how we engage and partner with communities before a shovel even hits the ground.”

He admitted that more still needed to be done to revitalise the construction industry and restore private sector confidence in the state’s infrastructure pipeline.

“We must ensure that government building projects are completed on time and on budget. I also recognise that contractors have borne the brunt of our failures — from delayed payments to being stuck in endless approval loops.”

Macpherson said that last month, the department, together with provincial MECs and the deputy minister, agreed that delays and excuses in public infrastructure delivery could no longer be tolerated.

At a special meeting in October they adopted the SA Construction Action Plan, a blueprint to fix public sector infrastructure delivery.

The plan, Macpherson said, was anchored on six core interventions, including tightening accountability through restriction committees and blacklisting defaulting contractors, ring-fencing project budgets to ensure cash flow, and introducing real-time, digitised project tracking across all spheres of government.

The plan also called for procurement reform, with the establishment of “procurement war rooms” to monitor major tenders as they unfold.