Moneyweb reports that armed ‘community forums’ – widely referred to as the ‘construction mafia’ – are prevalent on virtually all construction sites in the country, and the situation is so bad that engineers prefer to leave SA rather than work under such conditions.  

This is according to WBHO CEO Louwtjie Nel.  His comments came shortly after Aveng told reporters that staff at its Mtentu Bridge project in the Eastern Cape were threatened by people armed with illegal weapons who wanted to dictate which sub-contractors Aveng should fire and whom the company should replace them with.  They said the police in fact escorted the ‘community forum’ members onto the site, and failed to act when the construction group secured interdicts against the alleged perpetrators.  Members of site management were sent threatening messages and followed home, and a female engineer was manhandled.  Aveng CEO Sean Flanagan said the threats started in KwaZulu-Natal and spread to the Eastern Cape and further.  The situation has now also spread into mining, with three of Aveng’s mining sites, two opencast and one underground, currently being affected.  According to Aveng management, the argument is often made that nobody has been seriously injured or killed on site, but the group says it’s not prepared to put its staff at risk and wait until that happens.

• Read the full original of Antoinette Slabbert’s report on this story at Moneyweb

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