Minister Macpherson to deal decisively with construction mafia

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08-08-2024
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South Coast Sun
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Three people have been shot dead since the uMkhomazi Water Scheme project started.

PUBLIC Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson led a fact-finding oversight inspection of the Lower Umkhomazi water construction project on August 6 where he promised to deal decisively with the construction mafia that has allegedly been delaying progress at the site.

Macpherson said the R20-billion project has been delayed because of people who have come on-site and intimidated the appointed contractors, demanding a cut of the work. Three people, including a local councillor, have died since the project started. The main cause of conflict, said Macpherson, is the lack of clarity on how the 30% set aside for the community is allocated. He added that a war has been waged against this criminality because it will continue to be a threat to future projects.

“It’s a war that we must win because if we don’t, then it is South Africa that is going to suffer; it’s the people on these sites who are going to suffer. Our construction workers must be able to work in a peaceful environment. Our communities must be able to benefit from government-spend and infrastructure. It’s not going to be the people who want to tear these sites down that will win,” said Macpherson.

While a summit involving his department and other departments, including police and the military, will be held in September to seek ways to put an end to the construction mafia, funds have been made available for law enforcement to track the criminals down.

“They’ve offered incentives and rewards for information that leads to arrests. We’ve got to have intelligence-driven operations that find out who these people are,” he concluded.

Once complete, the Lower uMkhomazi Water Scheme project is expected to permanently resolve water supply issues from Isipingo to Amanzimtoti and beyond. After the slated December 2027 completion, it will produce 100 megalitres (ML) of water per day, of which 40ML will supply the southern wards of eThekwini Municipality.