Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson said when he took office in July 2024, one of the clearest threats facing infrastructure delivery in South Africa was the construction mafia.
WHEN I took office in July 2024, one of the clearest threats facing infrastructure delivery in South Africa was the construction mafia.
The problem had begun in KwaZulu-Natal but had spread across the country. Contractors, developers and public entities were reporting the same pattern: projects were being stopped, workers intimidated, equipment damaged, and companies pressured to hand over money or work to people with no lawful claim to it.
In KZN, the violence had become especially severe. At the uMkhomazi water project, an altercation linked to construction-mafia activity resulted in the deaths of three people and the assault of another.
That incident made it clear that this was not a normal community protest or labour dispute. It was organised criminality, requiring an organised national response.
