Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has cracked the whip on the construction mafia by blacklisting several companies it says are affiliated with alleged lead underworld figures in the Mother City.
In an exclusive interview with the Cape Argus, City manager Lungelo Mbandazayo revealed that an intense investigation into ongoing extortion by gangs has led to the municipality blacklisting 12 companies affiliated to Nicole Johnson, who is the wife of alleged 28s gang boss, Ralph Stanfield.
An intense investigation has uncovered links between Human Settlements Department officials with various companies, either run by Johnson or affiliated to her, he said.
The duo are in custody after they were arrested by the Anti-Gang Unit in October on a plethora of charges relating to an alleged murder plot of a former employee.
Mbandazayo said that after the murder of City staffer Wendy Kloppers – gunned down near the Delft housing site earlier this year – he started to scrutinise various contractors.
The 48-year-old, who worked for the City’s environmental affairs department, was visiting the Delft Symphony Way housing project to conduct an inspection when she was killed on February 16.
At the time of the murder, he said, the site was already under pressure by gangs who had tried to extort the contractor, and Kloppers was killed after the City refused to yield to their demands.
“The extortionists demanded a percentage of the work on the project while refusing to follow the competitive process.”
He said the investigation was launched into several companies and shocking discoveries were made.
“I decided to suspend all tenders and instead have a closer look at all of them. I cannot divulge how we uncovered the list of companies but I can confirm that we found that in fact all of them were being run by Nicole Johnson.”
Using an amendment to the Supply Chain Management Policy, Mbandazayo wrote to each of the companies and highlighted their involvement with Johnson and questioned why the City should continue doing business with them.
He explained that provisions in the policy allow for the City to blacklist companies who could bring reputational harm and as Johnson is already on trial on a range of firearm-related charges, she posed a risk.
Johnson’s business dealings were thrust into the limelight in 2019 after her company, Glomix House Brokers, was awarded a tender to build houses in Valhalla Park, a known stronghold of the 28s gang.
Mbandazayo believes the formation of construction companies by gangsters in order to obtain government tenders was a ploy to steal from communities and ratepayers who he said pay the ultimate price.
He said while all work on the Delft site has since been suspended, various other City projects have been affected by the ongoing extortion and this includes roadworks projects, MyCiTi construction along Spine Road, roadworks in Bishop Lavis and several others.
During the investigation, Mbandazayo uncovered the names of City officials who are accused of “tailor-making” tenders before they were advertised so the companies linked with the underworld could easily apply.
“The investigation also saw some of the officials from the Human Settlements Department being suspended and others are attending disciplinary hearings. They were even tailor-making tenders before they went out so those same companies could easily apply and be granted those tenders. They (the gangsters) don’t operate in isolation. They exist because internally there are people helping them. When you look at any criminal activity that is thriving, it’s because people are conniving.”
He said the decision to blacklist various companies was taken to shield ratepayers from kingpins.
“The risk we run of not blacklisting such companies is that the reputation of the City of Cape Town will be brought into serious question. But more importantly, taxpayers’ money will end up funding the criminal enterprises of suspected kingpins and I know that no law-abiding citizen of any country wants to see their money being used to fund people who are tearing down their communities and are responsible for the murder of thousands.”
