The SA professional construction council is allegedly seeking help in dealing with what it terms the ‘Construction Mafia’.

Speaking to Cape Talk, president of the South Africa Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions (SACPCMP) Isaac Nkosi says engineers are being intimidated into paying protection money to the equivalent of 30% of the building contracts as armed gangs violently disrupt construction sites.

The so-called “construction mafia” wants jobs and the 30 % stake in building contracts in the name of radical economic transformation.

The violence and intimidation have led to some major projects in the Eastern and Western Cape being abandoned.

Nkosi says the ‘construction mafia’ disguise themselves as community representatives but in fact extorts money.

“These people come through representing the local business forum where the project is happening. They would come in, in the name of representing their members and the community, but what transpires there is this element of extortion.”

Stakeholders have even written to President Cyril Ramaphosa, asking for urgent government intervention.