Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson revealed that mafia groups and gangsters have infiltrated South African security firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He revealed this during a media briefing on the outcomes of meeting the nine Provincial Members of the Executive Council (MECs) for Public Works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said there is a collaborative effort to reduce construction stoppages by criminal syndicates, better known as the construction mafia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe latest police data shows major progress through intensified intelligence gathering, data tracking and law enforcement operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c745 construction-related extortion cases have been reported, and we have seen 240 arrests made related to these cases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gauteng is the highest contributor, with 241 reported cases and 81 arrests, followed by the Western Cape, with 198 reported cases and 73 arrests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KwaZulu-Natal is third with 102 cases and 16 arrests, and the Eastern Cape fourth with 86 cases and 6 arrests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collectively, these four provinces account for 84% of all construction mafia extortion cases across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said they are engaging with the National Treasury to ensure a reform of the regulations under the Public Procurement Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This will close the loopholes used by the construction mafia to demand 30% of infrastructure project procurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe 30% local procurement rule, introduced by the National Treasury under former President Jacob Zuma, has been used by criminal syndicates to extort contractors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we want to end these criminal syndicates at infrastructure projects, we will have to remove the incentives these criminal syndicates use to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that they are collaborating with the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority, or PSIRA, to address extortionists who pose as security firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that they have seen gangsters and the construction mafia posing as security firms in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said working with PSIRA will ensure stricter monitoring and regulatory enforcement of security companies operating within the sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson revealed that mafia groups and gangsters have infiltrated South African security firms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":783270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[19175,20230,22166,22165],"class_list":["post-818851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-construction-mafia","tag-dean-macpherson","tag-provincial-members-of-the-executive-council-mecs","tag-public-works-and-infrastructure-minister-dean-macpherson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818852,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818851\/revisions\/818852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}