Human settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi ‘won’t bow to’ construction mafia

Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has said the construction mafia threatened her life during discussions about flood victims being given emergency housing after the 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal.

She told the Mail & Guardian this week that she had been targeted by the extortionists who wanted to force their way into the process of providing emergency housing and rebuilding homes washed away in the floods.

“I had incidents when we dealt with KZN but I didn’t feel they warranted me to stop doing my work. There was a belief that I’m not releasing the funds. It was before we took responsibility for emergency housing nationally,” she said.

“Previously we would transfer funds to municipalities and provinces. It was circulated in the amaDelangokubona group in KwaZulu-Natal and people were hearing that I must not go to KZN.”

Kubayi said she refused to bow to their threat. “I have never stopped. I’ve gone to do my work and there haven’t been any attempts on my life so far,” she said.

The controversial amaDelangokubona “business forum” has been accused of running a mafia-like organisation, demanding 30% of funds for construction projects — both in the public and private sector — through violence and intimidation.

The groups invade construction sites, demanding money or a stake in the building projects by threatening to shut them down until local companies are given a share of the business, often without doing any work.

Kubayi is not the only senior government official whose life has come under threat in KwaZulu-Natal for trying to eliminate the construction mafia.

In July, public works and infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer found a bullet casing near his car amid construction mafia threats to the new government of provincial unity. Meyer was appointed MEC in June and has been vocal about fighting the construction mafia in the province, where it has been operating with impunity for more than a decade.

Kubayi said she was aware of the Meyer incident and that intervention by the security cluster was necessary.

“We have got to have law enforcement agencies assisting us and rooting these people out of our society, because the reality is what we do is not for us or our families but it’s for South Africans,” she said.

“I have sworn to serve and I have got to serve. I always tell my colleagues that my job is to deliver houses and those responsible for protecting me must ensure that I’m protected, otherwise they’ll have to explain [any harm to me] to my family and the president.” 

The construction mafia has previously defended its actions by arguing that the government prevented small black companies from working in the construction industry.

Kubayi said small contractors were getting work, but those in the construction mafia wanted to be given contracts they were not qualified for.

“You can’t say when a project is worth a grade seven, you have a grade one but you want to be appointed. When it’s a grade seven, you also say it must be subcontracted,” she said.

“Now the construction mafia … what you see are people who want to take money and never do anything. 

“If somebody says, ‘We are a painting company, we are a bricklaying company or a tiling company,’ then you get subcontracted for tiling or painting. That’s fine because that is provided for in terms of our local empowerment programmes.

“Even if it’s a big company, they will take local guys as subcontractors. The problem with construction mafias is they take money and walk away; they come to seek protection fees for you to operate. They say, ‘For you to operate and conclude the project, give us 30%.’”

This week former Democratic Alliance councillor and City of Cape Town human settlements MMC Malusi Booi, former Cape Town public housing director Siphokazi September and seven others were granted bail for charges including fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering.

They were arrested in connection with eight City of Cape Town housing tenders worth just over R1  billion, said to have been unlawfully awarded to three companies linked to alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson.

Booi’s arrest fed into the allegations that politicians and senior government officials are involved in the construction mafia industry.

Kubayi said all politicians and officials who were involved in corruption in the housing sector and elsewhere should be reported and arrested. She applauded the arrest of Booi and his co-accused, saying it built confidence in the construction sector, but that it was “unfortunate” that they had allegedly enabled corruption, instead of protecting citizens.

“We will definitely support law enforcement agencies to strengthen their teeth and to arrest without fear or favour irrespective of who is involved. Arrests must be made,” she said, noting that a number of projects in the Western Cape had been delayed or blocked as a result of extortion and gangsterism.

“You would have found that a contractor left the site because people just arrived with guns and said, ‘You are not going to operate in our area.’ In Western Cape, it would have been gangsters that would have taken over projects by force and refused for people to be appointed who are not from that area,” she said.

This not only had cost implications but also forced legitimate contractors out of the business.

Kubayi said an indaba for women in the construction industry held in Kimberley last year revealed that the majority of female contractors were abandoning sites — especially in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal — mainly because of the construction mafia. 

Others had gone bankrupt because of the losses they sustained as a result of extortion.

Kubayi said the government security cluster needed to step in to secure the construction industry and protect those working in it.

“We need them. We will not be able to deliver on the human settlements mandate without the entrepreneurs, the construction companies that work in our sector,” she said.

Kubayi said her office would formally approach the office of Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to ensure that the construction sector is properly covered by the state’s anti-extortion strategy.

“We spoke offline, not formally in a meeting, and we have not had any engagements with Minister Mchunu. So I’m waiting for that with the team. He did highlight just broadly to say, ‘We will deal with broad issues of crime and all those things of extortion and you guys will be included,’” she said.

“He was keen to get us to explain what are key trends and some of the lessons learnt. My understanding is that work is in progress from their side in terms of assisting us broadly. We will definitely reach out again formally.”