Airports Company SA (Acsa) is taking an extreme measure to prevent its R21.7bn infrastructure programme from being derailed by the ‘construction mafia’ – secrecy.

According to Moneyweb, Acsa CEO Mpumi Mpofu said the minute Acsa mentions a multi-billion project or what it will cost, it ‘attracts the type of attention we don’t need’.

Mpofu said Acsa is preparing for this, adding that briefings are taking place across SA about the risk and being better prepared, including ‘these measures of not being out there for all of us, not just airports’.

‘Everybody who has got a big capital programme is now applying precautionary steps in the way they deal with the public information around their projects,’ she said.

Asked how the 'construction mafia' or so-called business forums gain access to Acsa properties as they are national key points and are supposed to be secured from a security perspective, Mpofu cited the example of ‘findings’ that indicate the ‘construction mafia’ now block or hijack material supply from source.

She said ‘all sorts of things’ are happening and that the 'construction mafia’s' actions are getting extremely complex.

‘We have amended the presentation because of a really new threat splashing around how much money these projects cost. It’s now a risk in SA.’

Mpofu’s reference to amending the presentation relates to a slide presentation at a briefing by Acsa on Thursday on its infrastructure maintenance programme covering the scope, timelines, key objectives, and what it means for airport operations, passenger experience, and the aviation sector at large.

The cost of a project was not reflected on any of the slides.

Full Moneyweb report