SA builders plead for help as crime hampers projects worth R25.5bn
Armed gangs are disrupting construction projects in the Eastern and Western Cape, demanding to be part of the projects themselves
An SA engineering contractors’ lobby group has asked the government to better enforce security as criminals have disrupted or vandalised R25.5bn of construction projects across the country. Armed gangs recently disrupted the R1.65bn Mtentu Bridge project in the Eastern Cape province, and a R2.4bn oil-storage investment project at Saldanha in the Western Cape was halted on March 13 after people demanding to be part of the project burnt down properties, the SA Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec) said in a March 18 letter addressed to finance minister Tito Mboweni. In the first incident, police released the arrested perpetrators, and in the second, public-order officials took three hours to arrive, Safcec said.
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