Police inaction allows lawlessness to spread
Newspapers usually put the freshest scandal of the day or the week on the front page.
Television and radio outlets put such outrages at the top of their news bulletins.
The biggest scandal in SA last weekend was hidden far, far back in the Sunday Times.
To get to it you had to go through the news section, then the opinion section, wade through the sports section and finally plough through the business section.
On page nine of the business section you would have read: “Ten meetings with the national police commissioner to discuss tackling the construction mafia in SA have been cancelled in the past four months, says South African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors CEO Webster Mfebe.”
What is the construction mafia?
These are armed gangs that arrive on construction sites across the country, try to extort money from legitimate contractors and use such violent methods that 84 infrastructure projects worth more than R27bn have been abandoned by fearful companies.
The phenomenon started in KwaZulu-Natal more than two years ago, spread to the Eastern Cape and is now raging like wildfire across the nation.
Just this past week, a small contractor in Soshanguve told a harrowing story about attempts by these gangsters to hijack a government project he was working on.
The modus operandi is the same: a government project is announced, a bid process is opened up and when the chosen contractor starts work a “business forum” emerges and demands at least 30% of the fee for “labour work”.
In most instances, these “business forums” just want the cash.
It is a criminal racket. These people are not unknown.
A few weeks ago Carte Blanche ran an exposé of their methods in which the nation watched with horror as journalists were threatened.
Construction companies have brought court interdicts against them and have identified them again and again.
Mfebe says there have been an astonishing 51 court interdicts against these outfits but “not a single person has been successfully charged”.
Instead, what we have are promises.
In his budget speech on February 26, finance minister Tito Mboweni announced from the podium: “The disruptive actions of those who storm construction sites or mines, harm growth and lead to job losses. Communities should expose such people to allow ministers [Bheki] Cele and [Ronald] Lamola [ministers of police and justice) to ensure that the law takes its course. I hope all South Africans join me in condemning this.”
Fine words indeed, but there is no action.
The commissioner of police, Khehla Sithole, can get away with cancelling 10 meetings — and there are no consequences for this.
If the police commissioner cannot honour 10 meetings in succession then he is clearly so incompetent that he cannot be trusted to even wash his own armpits.
Such a person should not be allowed to even be close to the running of a police service.
The truth of the matter is that the SA Police Service leadership is failing South Africans.
Violence is rampant across our university campuses and not a single person has been arrested.
A culture of lawlessness has taken hold.
Indeed, a culture in which lawlessness and anarchy is encouraged and is lauded as revolutionary is encouraged.
The “construction mafia”, for example, sees itself as part of the “radical economic transformation” brigade in the ANC.
Reflecting on campus violence this past week, Wits University vice-chancellor Adam Habib tweeted: “The reason our campuses are burning is also because the SAPS do not do their jobs properly.
“The police are reluctant to make arrests, focus on protecting the rights of protesters, and never the rights of ordinary citizens who are often threatened & violated.
“How can there be so much arson at our universities without anyone being arrested? The crisis of violence in society is a direct result of the incompetence of the police service.
“Even democracies require good policing. When police fail to do their job, the poor in society suffer.”
What should happen? It would be nice to say that President Cyril Ramaphosa should fire Sithole and even the minister, Bheki Cele, and the deputy Cassel Mathale.
We know that Ramaphosa won’t do this. Cele was key to bringing him to power, using his base in KwaZulu-Natal to challenge former president Jacob Zuma.
Similarly, Mathale used his power base in Limpopo to beat the drum for Ramaphosa. They won’t get fired.
Meanwhile, contractors open their office doors in the morning and find bullets and threatening letters on their desks.
Meanwhile, millions of unemployed people find themselves on the streets as major projects are abandoned.
Ramaphosa has pledged a staggering R700bn in infrastructure projects over the next 10 years.
Until he can get his police commissioner to attend a simple meeting, just one simple meeting, that is a pipe dream.