Extortion racketeers are to blame for the bulk of the Eastern Cape’s abandoned or delayed public infrastructure projects.
This is according to provincial whip in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Nkosi Mwelo Nonkonyana, who led a delegation to the province this week to conduct oversight visits of all projects under construction, delayed or abandoned.
The visits form part of NCOP’s consolidated weeklong programme which kicked off on Monday, followed by a briefing by premier Oscar Mabuyane on Tuesday, where he outlined some of the challenges faced by the province in infrastructure development.
Nonkonyana said on top of NCOP’s list was to ensure all projects were completed without disruption from construction mafias.
He said frank discussions would be held with the project managers of some of the delayed projects.
The Eastern Cape has been in the spotlight for being among the country’s provinces under siege by extortionists and construction mafias.
On Thursday, it was reported that Buffalo City Metro, the OR Tambo district and Nelson Mandela Bay Metro were flagged by the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure as extortion hotspots.
“The infrastructure for schools, roads and centres has been affected by the actions of these criminals that are invading public institutions, preventing government to fast-track delivery of services,” Nonkonyana said.
The delegation, which consisted of municipal managers and officials from all affected districts and provincial and national government departments, conducted their first oversight visits in the Chris Hani and Joe Gqabi district municipalities.
NCOP chair of the select committee on education, sciences and creative industries, Makhi Feni, led the delegation in the Joe Gqabi district, while Nonkonyana led the oversight visit in the Chris Hani district.
The Chris Hani delegation visited the vandalised Tsomo Waste Water project which was started in April 2018 and was meant to have been completed by May 2021, at a cost of R96m.
The initial contractor left the site in May 2022. Their contract was later terminated due to poor performance.
Chris Hani is in the process of appointing another service provider.
R91m has been spent to date, but a further R17m is needed to finish the project, including fixing what has been vandalised.
The delegation also visited the Albertina Sisulu Multipurpose Centre and the Joe Slovo and Nyanisweni roads and sanitation project.
The Joe Gqabi delegation visited the Langeni Pass connecting Ugie and Mthatha, which was closed in 2023 for safety assessment by the SA National Roads Agency.
“[Today] we will meet with the teams to share notes and get further briefing from the government and municipalities,” Nonkonyana said.
“We will [then] meet on September 25 [and thereafter] finalise the report to present to the NCOP.
“Our role will be to sanction government to unlock any blockages and finance services that need money so that our people can enjoy their services.
“If it is criminality, we will ask the defence force to unblock all those blockages.
“We don’t want any blockages in delivering services to the people.
“[Community safety] MEC [Xolile] Nqatha and the premier briefed us on the steps that were taken, naturally there is a need for what is happening to be pursued and to be supported nationally.”
Last week, Mabuyane said the government was stepping up the fight against crime, particularly against kidnapping, extortion, murder and sexual violence.
He described the crime scourge in the province as an “albatross” that was “pushing back as we are moving forward”.
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