Gauteng police say they have been investigating several groups in Tshwane, who target infrastructure projects to hijack them or extort money from developers under the guise of local beneficiation.
Yet despite a police special task team set up last year to crack down on the groups using a modus operandi similar to Mamelodi's feared group “Boko Haram” only a few arrests have been made.
The police could not provide details on their efforts to stem the tide of the mushrooming groups even though they admitted that the crime wasn't organised but rather made of copy cats individuals in various areas.
Police would also not say how many arrests have been made in their investigations of the alleged network of extortions.
In the latest incident of alleged extortion of a developer in Silverton, near Mamelodi east of Pretoria, earth works project was stopped by three men purporting to represent nearby Nellmapius community to demand that they be given 30% stake in the construction three weeks ago.
Three men, including an ANC branch secretary of Tshwane ward 86, Lima Sethokga and two brothers Thabo and Karabo Letswalo were arrested and are facing charges of extortion, harassment and intimidation.
The trio were released on bail last week and will be back in court next month after the matter was postponed for further investigation.
Gauteng police spokesperson Col Noxolo Keswa said their team is already investigating other groups in Tshwane which are not directly linked to Boko Haram.
“Tshwane is experiencing few cases that are being reported whereby projects are being hijacked or money being extorted from small businesses, but some of these groups are not linked or related to Boko Haram. There are various groups at this stage that are being investigated,” Keswa said.
She said the task team has already managed to make arrests and bring a number of cases before courts but refused to give a number. She could only say there were more than three cases.
“At this stage we cannot give you more details on this,” she said, adding that police expect to make more arrests, especially when victims come forward to report attempts to stop their projects.
A manager at the development in Silverton which was targeted last month, who asked not to be named for safety, said they were told by unknown men to stop their project and not do anything unless the group was also part of it. The developer in the area was preparing the ground with earthworks for possible commercial development.
“We have now hired security to protect our eight workers when they work,” the man said.
“We feel intimidated to give work to people we don't even know who they are, all they said was that they want 30% of anything that happens on the site.”
The manager said the group offered to provide a plant for hire during construction and also demanded that the developer hired a community liaison officer on the project.
The man said they reported the matter to the Silverton police who reacted when the group returned the next day after the company had resumed work.
“They said even if we wanted to erect a fence, they could do that for us,” he said.
In a similar case, the upgrading of Solomon Mahlangu road in Mamelodi was temporarily halted last year allegedly by members of the notorious Boko Haram gang who demanded a 30% stake in the total project cost.
According to workers who witnessed the disruption, a group calling itself Boko Haram demanded to be roped in to provide security and only then the construction project continue.
A ward councillor in Nellmapius Thabo Ntlatleng who said he was present when the arrested initially met the developer of the Silverton project claimed they did not intimidate or seek to extort money from the project.
He said they initially had a meeting with the developer on July 12 at the Nellmapius skills centre offices where it was agreed that local small businesses would be roped in as sub-contractors on the project.
“I was so shocked to hear that people were arrested for asking about jobs that will benefit the community as a whole and those guys are not the Boko Haram gang they just innocent members of the community concerned that locals must benefit,” said Ntlatleng.
The so-called Boko Haram ring sprung to notoriety last year when it targeted tuck shops owned by foreigners who were made to pay monthly protection fees ranging between R300 and R400 for operating in both Mamelodi and neighbouring Nellmapius.
The group also allegedly hijacked a municipal housing project popularly know as “Nkandla” at Mamelodi West hostel and rented out several units.
Tshwane aware of crooks
The City of Tshwane says it is aware of unscrupulous businesspeople who interrupt projects claiming to represent the community to demand cuts in the money. Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba labelled the action as pure criminality which has nothing to do with empowering locals.
He said local beneficiation is part of contractual obligations on tenders issued by the city. He said this was meant to ensure that people who work on these contracts are from local communities. Bokaba said there was a case which was brought to the city's attention recently in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, where a road-surfacing project was interrupted by businesspeople who demanded to be given work.
Bokaba said the companies who are resurfacing the roads for example have to hire local people such as general workers like those calming traffic with flags.
"The issue of localisation is important, there's a certain percentage of localisation [which has to take place] where you don't have to bring in outside personnel, but these people who are demanding a cut are not your local unemployed people; these are businesspeople who are demanding money for themselves," Bokaba said.
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