With elections a week away, attacks on ward councillors are bad for democracy and reflect the country’s organised crime problem.
’ is sweeping across South Africa, crippling construction and small businesses with threats and bribes, and more recently killing political ward councillors if demands aren’t met.
By March 2019, the South African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors estimated that construction projects worth a minimum of R25.5-billion had been violently disrupted and halted. As a result, 110 engineers and other highly skilled technical personnel had left the country. In cities such as Tshwane, the protection fee is colloquially known as a ‘30%’ — a reference to the proportional subcontracting requirement in the Treasury’s 2017 Preferential Procurement Regulations. These directives aim to transform the economy by empowering historically disadvantaged individuals and small, medium and micro-enterprises.
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