Matlhlodi Maseko, DA Western Cape spokesperson for Human Settlements, told Daily Maverick on Tuesday that the party had raised urgent concerns about extortion in the province’s housing sector, describing the situation as “hopeless”.

There are also growing fears that if Police Minister Bheki Cele does not take drastic action to combat extortion syndicates, not only will housing construction be halted, but also that of schools and other vital projects. 

Extortion is a form of organised crime that has infiltrated many aspects of South African life.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “South Africa must tackle organised crime before it’s too late”

Maseko said that over the past five years, 45,000 beneficiaries had been denied housing due to criminality affecting 47 housing projects.

The department of infrastructure, Maseko said, revealed in a recent parliamentary reply that housing projects in the Western Cape worth R5-billion had been halted since 2017 due to land invasions and criminal acts.

The most recent incident occurred last month in Gugulethu, when the contractor for Luvolo Housing Development was forced to stop working due to extortion and intimidation. During the incident, shots were fired at four security workers at the construction site.

‘We’ve stepped into a gangster’s world’

“There has been a pattern of criminality targeting Human Settlements projects with the express purpose of extorting money from project managers in exchange for protection.

“It’s as if we’ve stepped into a gangster’s world, where you have to pay an entry fee or be handed an affiliation to be a part of it. We are supposed to deliver, but this is not happening due to extortion… it has expanded… also in transportation and education,” Maseko explained.

Maseko said it was essentially a “hostage” situation:

 “We are held hostage by these extortionists and there is no free economic development; no free involvement where communities can say, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur, and I might try my luck tendering for a contract’.

“Gangs are excluding larger communities and beginning to target members of communities,” she said.

Asked about the spread of extortion in urban centres, Maseko said gangs were becoming more involved in areas where they want to be given the security contract for a project, or to take over the entire project.

In August this year, gang bosses, apparently angry about being cut out of security contracts on Cape Town’s railways, had their armed foot soldiers chase away those working at the Bonteheuwel train station.

Gun-wielding gangsters target Prasa, derail Western Cape train line repair plans

Read more in Daily Maverick: “28s gang ‘capture’ top Western Cape cops, prosecutors’ lives at risk — judge sounds corruption alarm”

Extortion is not restricted to the Western Cape. A growing extortion mafia is sweeping across South Africa, crippling construction projects and small businesses.

As the Bargaining Council for the Civil Engineering Industry stated in April 2022, “the problem of intimidation, extortion and violence on construction sites has reached crisis levels”. The “construction mafias” — as they have been dubbed — who are responsible for this intimidation, have become widespread since their first appearance in KwaZulu-Natal.

To begin addressing the extortion crisis in the Western Cape, Maseko intends engaging with the SA Police Service with a request that it makes a presentation to the Standing Committee on Human Settlements on the trends and incidents that have been reported in housing developments in the province over the past five years. A meeting has been scheduled for early January next year.

Maseko said: “How do you react if the extortionist demands that you continue while you have a 70- or 80-year-old lady waiting to get into a house?

“We cannot encourage criminality because once you do it, you must do it again and again.”

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According to Malusi Booi, Mayco Member for Human Settlements in the City of Cape Town, there have been many criminal disruptions at key housing projects meant to benefit some of the metro’s most vulnerable residents. Booi says this is a growing national issue: “We are concerned about the increasing trend in these criminal activities which have stalled or blocked projects that are key to the wellbeing and development of the communities.”

He says the lives of service providers are also at risk, and that the city has deployed additional security and law enforcement. However, the lead crime-fighting authority is the SAPS — and this where the action and resolution is required.

A panel discussion at the recent Daily Maverick’s The Gathering indicated there was no quick fix. Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions, Anton du Plessis, said, organised crime was an existential threat to South Africa, its democracy and its economy.

Du Plessis shared a panel with former top detective Jeremy Vearey and Caryn Dolley, author of several books on crime and the underworld.

Vearey believes the SAPS must be transformed into a professional service, with detectives trained in basic crime scene investigations.

“The lack of the ability to gather intelligence using old-fashioned methods, and to find and source agents who could infiltrate organised crime networks, was a massive failure,” Vearey said. DM