eThekwini fears tender thugs

Fears are growing that the eThekwini Municipality is under siege from “tender thugs”, who are using violence and intimidation to prevent municipal workers from rolling out services unless they are given city contracts. Less than three months after laying siege to the municipality’s electricity depots – where they threatened to kill workers who went out on jobs – the Delangokubona KZN Business Forum has in the past week targeted roads and storm water depots and made similar threats to staff. They also targeted the Newlands depot, which services the northern parts of Durban. Members of the forum apparently have the cellphone numbers of senior managers in the Roads Department and have been phoning them with threats. According to sources, the threats and intimidation have been taking place for nearly a month.

“There are crews that are terrified of going to certain areas. If there is a critical job that needs to be done, we have to organise police escorts. People are scared to go out and work. These guys are armed and told people they will be killed. No one wants to take that chance,” the source said. The shadowy uMlazi-based business forum ended its siege of the municipality’s electricity depots in February, after the intervention of the ANC leadership in the city. The recent incidents come less than a week after the eThekwini Municipality reached a secret agreement with taxi operators who brought to a halt construction on the city public transport network after demanding a slice of the contract. Work on the Mount Edgecombe phase of the contract stopped for several weeks – at an estimated cost of R600?000 a day – after armed taxi operators chased workers off the site. They stopped their intimidation and threats last Thursday after reaching a confidential agreement with the city.

DA caucus leader, Zwakele Mnwango, said the city was besieged by “tender thugs” because there was a lack of leadership. “These groups are bringing pure anarchy to the city. It seems that all you have to do to get a contract now is to go out there and intimidate people doing the work. “Three weeks ago, I met six contractors who have been threatened. “I brought this to the attention of the ANC leadership, and despite promises they have not met with me. "The city cannot allow these thugs to go around threatening workers and stopping contracts. The scary thing is that the people who are doing this are known. "They should not be negotiating with them, they should be arresting them,” he said. Mdu Inkosi of the IFP agreed, saying the disruptions were politically motivated. “These people are ANC comrades who have the support of certain ANC leaders. This whole issue is about camps in the ANC, which is now starting to affect service delivery,” he said.

The Delangokubona KZN Business Forum has been targeting city depots since December, after storming electricity depots and threatening to shoot any staff that left the premises for work. Electricity staff had to be escorted by metro police to carry out critical work, while several areas in Durban were left without electricity during the impasse. In February, the ANC in the eThekwini region hosted a press conference with the eThekwini Municipality and Delangokubona KZN Business Forum where they promised to facilitate workshops and training for the group, so that they could be developed to participate in tenders after following processes. The ANC claimed that the group just wanted opportunities to tender for contracts. ANC regional chairwoman, Zandile Gumede, who is also a member of the city’s executive committee, said the recent incident with Delangokubona KZN Business Forum was being handled by the city manager.

“We are allowing the city manager to deal with this matter. When it is time, he will give us a report. For now we are not getting involved,” she said. City manager, S'bu Sithole, did not return messages left for him by the Daily News. The city’s communication department had not responded to e-mailed questions at the time of publication. The Daily News contacted Delangokubona KZN Business Forum on a cellphone number found on its Facebook page, but was told to contact a Mr Mnyandu for comment. However, Mnyandu could not be reached for comment.