Durban — The case against five men believed to be members of the notorious “construction mafia gangs” has been postponed to Monday for a bail hearing.
The five briefly appeared in the Camperdown Magistrate’s Court on Monday where the matter was postponed.
The men believed to have disrupted construction sites in and around Pietermaritzburg, were arrested on Saturday by the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Reaction Task Team established to curb construction mafia-related activities.
They face charges of intimidation and disturbance of infrastructure. The State has also added charges of extortion.
Provincial National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the five were remanded in custody.
KZN police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said the task team responded to reports of a group disturbing activities at a construction site where a bridge was under construction in Msunduzi.
“On arrival, police arrested the five suspects and they were duly charged for intimidation as well as the disturbance of a construction site. The five, are aged 28 to 44 years old.”
Last week, another government construction site was disrupted when “business forum” members stormed the R109 million site, demanding subcontracting work. The site belongs to the Transport Department. Several other sites were also disrupted.
This prompted a visit by Public Works and Infrastructure MEC Martin Meyer who warned the group his department would not tolerate the disruption of government construction programmes. Meyer said he was prepared to listen to the grievances of genuine business people but not a disruptive group in the name of business forums.
Last week, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson and Meyer announced a summit on the matter which will assist the government to identify legitimate business forums and separate them from criminals masquerading as business forums.
The urgent meeting, set to involve Public Works MECs from all provinces and law-enforcement cluster ministers, will be held in KwaZulu-Natal to develop a decisive response to the construction mafia across the country.
Meyer recently provided the minister with a report on how the construction mafia has resurfaced in KZN.
Macpherson said on Friday that shortly after he was appointed as Public Works Minister, he vowed to deal decisively with the construction mafia and to restore the rule of law at construction sites across the country.
During a recent oversight visit to the uMkhomazi water project, he learnt how an altercation with the construction mafia led to the death of three people and the assault of another, he said, labelling this as simply unacceptable.
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