Companies have to cope with a complicit state, mushrooming"business forums" and limited economic space to accommodate them.On 11 September 2022, Mnqobi Molefe, 35, was shot dead while in hiding on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, where he was councillor for the outlying eThekwiniMost of the councillors, like Molefe, were ANC, killed in internal power struggles over local patronage networks.
Police say that on 22 August 2022, just before midnight, a municipal employee and associate of Molefe named Victor Cele was shot dead near Port Shepstone. In the early hours of the following morning, Buthelezi was murdered, as was Hlonipo Nzimande, another childhood friend. Police say the same gun was used in these three killings; nearly three weeks later, it was used to kill Molefe.
The newspaper said the task team was understood to have seized a laptop and cellphone belonging to Njoko, along with records of the CPG meetings held to discuss work on Ngwadini.The water authority set itself up as a champion of radical economic transformation, adopting a policy to set aside 35% of contract value for its Contract Participation Goals to go to black-owned small business.
According to Umgeni Water, the agreement meant affiliates of the BBF"could potentially become participants in Umgeni Water’s enterprise development programmes", but also that disruptions that Umgeni had previously endured might be avoided. Construction mafias emerged in Durban around 2014 and have since invaded building sites around the country. They became business forums, sprouted up across the land, and are constantly morphing and expanding into other economic sectors.
Political machines, he argues, offer"vast opportunities for the construction of corrupt syndicates" in which politicians and mafias operate in symbiosis. The year 2018 was a seminal period in the history of construction mafias. In that year Mnyandu lead a shutdown of construction on the R276 million Hammarsdale Interchange on the busy N3 highway between Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
In July, KZN MEC Sipho Nkosi was slated for suggesting talks with mafias responsible for multiple work stoppages on the construction of a high school in Umlazi, resulting in delays to the project of over a year.
In the taxi business, you operate a route, and you need protection. Taxi bosses use their talent and ability to exercise pressure and govern spaces. More about the taxi bosses later. They feature prominently in the bigger story about the construction mafia.Laws determine what percentage of state projects must be shared in local communities, but anyone working in this space has to untie a Gordian knot interpreting legislation and associated regulations governing these laws.
While the 2017 regulations – described by Brunette as"a centrepiece" of the Zuma faction’s patronage project – only governed public contracts, it was wilfully misinterpreted by construction mafias demanding a 30% share of private projects too.Both the 2017 regulations and the national policy vacuum since the February 2022 court decision have helped worsen the free-for-all.
The Procurement Bill, if enacted, will allow the minister to set policy. But for now, it is up to each state entity to determine its beneficiary criteria. The law aside, a host of other practicalities impact companies. They have to work with project steering committees that determine the beneficiaries of work and are invariably made up of councillors and business forums who are often at odds."We represented a client who built a mall. There were delays with the construction because the mafia demanded a share of the work. When the mall was built the same mafia demanded a say in who the mall tenants employed.
Makhosa Doko is a proud BBF member, the unapologetic face of restless, young business demanding a share in the economy. When BBF was formed in 2020, Doko says there was a rearguard action from armed forum members who wanted to pursue a more violent path.Forums, BBF members protest, abuse the organisation’s name for selfish benefit.
Makgwa says the rainbow nation is not a reality. She is not a founding member of BBF, but thanks to the organisation, she now engages directly with the CEO of Sanral."I have learned things I would never have." "Things are running smoothly," Jaca says."We unlocked projects, including for Umgeni Water. We found common ground through community liaison…projects must benefit everyone."
Zondi said there are"lots of rogue forums going around" claiming to represent black business. The ground was made fertile by the government’s failures, which made BBF a magnet for frustrated people, including politicians and pastors who had created forums. The memorandum says Umgeni Water will"work closely" with the BBF in determining the selection criteria for Contract Participation Goals . The utility appears bound to invite the BBF to participate in the recruitment and selection process of the prospective participants in CPG and Supplier Development programmes.And the BBF agreed, where requested, to use its networks and relationships to attend to any work stoppages involving Umgeni Water.
Maventic, according to its website, is based in Pinewood Office Park in Sandton. Its representative cited in court papers is Neilan Naidoo, a former EOH employee.Umgeni Water, Zondi alleged,"proceeded with stealth, obscurity and urgency" to award the tender to the exclusion of members of the BBF"despite having signed a Memorandum of Agreement to so consult and involve them".This attempt to wield lawyers rather than AK47s was spectacularly unsuccessful.
Both Umgeni Water and Maventic slammed the BBF on procedural grounds and Judge Rishi Seegobin agreed. The BBF’s attempt to interdict Umgeni Water was struck off the court roll for lack of urgency on 15 June and the BBF was ordered to pay punitive costs.
A construction company boss explained how a taxi boss foisted himself on his business:"We were threatened by guys brandishing big guns. Police don’t want to confront them, so we had to talk to them. Now we have this big taxi guy in control of our security."The mafias know the construction companies are sweating. The economy is bad and its easy to rack up millions in penalties if your project is late. Your priority is the safety of your employees and getting the job done on time.
In one case, still to come before court, a Gauteng taxi boss took over a mine security company, forced his way into the mine’s procurement process and set himself up as the gatekeeper to the community benefit scheme for locals living around the mine. He has absolutely no connection with the mine. This is not different from how New York mobsters prospered in the construction business in the 1970s. Organised crime controlled the construction industry through unions and by dominating concrete companies. Crime families also rigged tenders and took kickbacks from winning bidders.It’s hard to imagine a starker example of the taxi boss trajectory than the Mkhize brothers.
Yet it seems his controversial background has not stopped Mathula from being appointed as the gatekeeper-cum-peacekeeper for one of the largest government infrastructure projects ever, the multi-billion rand greater N2 N3 corridor upgrades in KwaZulu-Natal, which are expected to take 8-10 years to complete and to deliver up to 15 000 job opportunities over the period of construction.
Collaboration between Business Against Crime South Africa and the South African Police Services between October 2022 and February this year saw the identification of 143 suspects on a range of charges including murder, public violence, intimidation, assault, damage to property, pointing weapons, kidnapping, trespassing and extortion.