Is the Govt Failing to Rein in the Local Mafia?

by Admin · October 13, 2022

(Photo: faruk-tokluoğlu/pexels)

Recent events in the transport and construction industries suggest that the government is failing to rein in what can be described as local mafias, argues MIKE POTHIER of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office.

It has become notorious in recent years that construction companies embarking on new projects have had to agree to take on a certain number of labourers nominated by local “businesspeople” or, alternatively, to commit to purchasing building materials from the same source.

Where companies resisted, they found their workers threatened and intimidated and even had armed men coming onto the work sites to halt construction.

This trend was first reported in KwaZulu-Natal, and there were some attempts to justify it based on the notion that local small enterprises, and not just “big corporates”, should benefit from these projects. It has since spread to many other parts of the country.

These activities are criminal in various ways: they constitute, at a minimum, the common law crimes of public violence, assault and extortion; and they contravene various statutes, including the Intimidation Act of 1982, the cumbersomely entitled Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act of 2004, the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act of 2004, and the Prevention of Organised Crime Act of 2001.

The problem has now spread well beyond the construction industry. For example, gangsters in Cape Town managed to halt work on repairing the central railway line running through the Cape Flats, demanding to be paid “protection” money.

And it is often claimed that elements in the taxi industry are behind the disruption of other forms of public transport – burning buses and trains, for instance.

The overall response from the government has been predictably supine. The police have done little, if anything, to assist the construction industry, and they also tried to pass the buck on the central line issue. And there have been very few arrests for the numerous incidents of arson against bus companies and Metrorail passenger trains.

But recently in the Eastern Cape, the government went from simply doing nothing to actively encouraging this “mafia-isation” of the economy. The Intercape long-distance bus company has been under attack by taxi operators in areas such as Butterworth, Cofimvaba, Engcobo and Idutywa; the taxi groups wanted it to stop serving certain routes, to increase its prices, and even to pay levies to the taxi industry. Threats were made and carried out, with a number of physical attacks on buses and the murder of at least one driver.

According to the Makhanda High Court, when Intercape approached the Eastern Cape MEC for Transport for assistance, instead of carrying out her statutory duties under the Transport Act to ensure the safety of the company’s drivers and passengers, she “tried to bully [Intercape] into agreeing to the unlawful demands of the taxi associations” and attempted, again unlawfully, to prohibit Intercape from operating on the contested routes.

Judge John Smith also found that there was “undisputed evidence of an MEC pandering to rogue taxi associations and acquiescing in their criminal conduct” .

It could be argued that the national minister (who was found to have done nothing beyond attending a single meeting that had no effect) and various officials “acquiesced”, in that their inactivity amounted to turning a blind eye to the criminality. The MEC’s decision to side with the taxi associations, despite the clearly criminal nature of their threats and attacks, was in fact aiding and abetting crime, and not merely acquiescing in it.

In fairness to all involved in this matter, the Court accepted evidence that the SA Police Services had provided Intercape with escorts in some of the most dangerous “hot spots”. But when this service was withdrawn the attacks recommenced.

Be that as it may, the gravity of the MEC’s conduct cannot be over-emphasised. We have sadly become used to various degrees of inactivity and dereliction of duty from ministers and MECs, but outside of those implicated in state capture they have not generally sought to advance an openly criminal agenda.

Our economy is labouring under massive burdens, many of which are the result of government’s failure to fulfil some very basic tasks — to ensure that we have enough electricity generation capacity; to maintain a basic rail infrastructure; to keep goods flowing efficiently through our ports; and to ensure that businesses can operate under minimum conditions of safety and security. But when a senior member of the executive branch of government crosses the line from doing nothing to actively siding with criminality,

The real and potential damage to the economy is taken to a whole new level.

1 See Intercape Ferreira Mainliner (Pty) Ltd v The MEC for Transport, Eastern Cape and others https://www.groundup.org.za/media/uploads/documents/reasons_for_order_intercape_mec_and_minister.pdf

2 Ibid.
3 In fairness to all involved in this matter, the Court accepted evidence that the SA Police Services had provided Intercape with escorts in some of the most dangerous ‘hot spots’. But when this service was withdrawn the attacks recommenced.

Mike Pothier
Programme Manager