At least 42 construction projects faced extortion, intimidation and construction-mafia activity in Cape Town over the last five years, reports the Cape Argus.

This is according to Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia during his response to parliamentary questions from ActionSA MP Dereleen James.

James had asked about the total number of construction projects affected by extortion, intimidation and construction-mafia activity in the City of Cape Town in the past five financial years.

She also wanted to know the rand value of the affected projects as well as the number of arrests made and convictions arising from the arrests.

In his response, Cachalia said 12 construction projects in the City of Cape Town were affected by extortion in the past five financial years. He also said a further 16 construction projects were affected by intimidation during the same period.

Cachalia put the total value of the affected projects at R1.483bn.

However, neither arrests nor convictions have been made in Cape Town to date.

The figures provided by Cachalia contradicted those he provided in May this year in connection with extortion syndicates operating at construction sites, schools, transport routes and municipal projects that were reported nationally over the last three years. 

He had not provided a breakdown of arrests by province other than the categories of projects that were targeted by extortionists.

He had stated that 44 cases were investigated, with 36 cases linked to syndicates operating at construction sites, one at schools, six on transport routes and one involving municipal projects.

The Minister had indicated that 73 arrests were made and 56 arrests stemmed from construction site-related cases while six were linked to municipal project cases, eight transport route incidents and three were linked to school-linked extortion activities.

Full Cape Argus report