South African Builders Seek Help as Crime Disrupts $1.8 Billion of Projects
- Structures burnt down, building sites vandalized, group says
- Safcec asks the government to better maintain the rule of law
A South African engineering contractors’ lobby group asked the the government to better enforce security as criminals have disrupted or vandalized 25.5 billion rand ($1.8 billion) of construction projects across the country.
Armed gangs “recently” disrupted the 1.65 billion-rand Mtentu Bridge project in the Eastern Cape province, and a 2.4 billion-rand oil-storage investment project at Saldanha in the Western Cape was halted on March 13 after people demanding to be part of the project burnt down properties, the South African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors said in a March 18 letter addressed to Finance Minister Tito Mboweni. In the first incident, police released the arrested perpetrators, and in the second, public-order officials took three hours to arrive, Safcec said.