Armed man ‘negotiated’ for a job at hotel construction site

A day after chasing away Eric Thokwana from their site, another extorter came the following day armed with a gun, demanding to be a community liaison officer of a construction site at a Tshwane hotel.

One of the employees in charge of the renovations at Park Lodge Hotel in Tshwane told Sowetan how his colleagues were in panic when an unknown man visited their site office and made job demands. The renovations started in January and are meant to be completed by the end of the year.

The employee told Sowetan that Thokwana visited them in February and demanded to be a CLO.

“He came alone and he was very aggressive in his demands. He wanted us to pay him R15,000 to be a consultant between us and the community. We did not need a CLO but he was very aggressive and threatened that he’d shut down the site if we refused,” said the employee.

He said after doing some research they realised that Thokwana was from a neighbouring ward from the hotel.

“We realised that he had no authority in this ward and we simply told him to go away and leave us alone. He never came back but I know a lot of companies here are scared of him,” said the employee.

However, after Thokwana left another man came armed with a concealed firearm and demanded the company hire local labour and appoint him as a CLO.

“When someone shows up on site with a weapon, you really do not stand a chance to have a fair negotiation with them. We did not stand a chance. We appointed him and he is on our payroll and has been getting R10,000 per month since February for doing nothing. He brought about six people as labourers and these people don’t even stay in Pretoria.

“These people can’t do the work, and one day I asked one of them to build a wall and the bricks were so skewed that I had to negotiate with the CLO who brought him here to have him removed. Our company is paying salaries to people who are doing nothing on site,” said the manager.

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