This is despite challenges by what he called “emotionally charged lobbyists” — environmentalists — who cite the dangers of nuclear power and radioactive waste disposal. He said they did so without paying attention to the science.

Ramokgopa told a nuclear summit in Pretoria that developing 2500 megawatts of new nuclear energy generation, as highlighted in the Integrated Resource Plan  2019 (IRP 2019), is firmly on the table as part of the country’s future energy mix.

He said the government’s recent withdrawal of the January 2024 gazette of a ministerial determination to procure nuclear power under the Electricity Regulation Act was to ensure the public participation process is transparent, “clean” and “democratic”.

Environmentalists including the Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute, Earth Life Africa and the Democratic Alliance had challenged the procedural fairness and legality of the determination in the high court.

Ramokgopa said that although renewable energy is ascending in use and popularity there remains “little conversation” about nuclear power from scientists.

“Where are the nuclear people? Because we’ve got the sterling record of 76 years of contribution to the science and technology, at least to the extent that nuclear

is responsible for power … for purposes of electrification,” he said.

“We have entered an arena and a period in this evolving energy complex, of lobbyists, of those who ‘appropriate to themselves, the know-how’ of a technology, and they’ve got the capacity and the potential to … undermine and discredit a technology not supported by science and evidence.”

Ramokgopa said the scientific community had a duty to dispel “these myths” regarding dangers of nuclear power.

The minister said politicians and policymakers had also “soiled” the reputation of the technology “because of allegations of malfeasance, leakage, corruption, manipulation” and the wasting of money.

“This is what nonscientists that don’t have a scientific basis use to push back and invalidate the argument,” he said.

Ramokgopa said the government would announce its next steps regarding its nuclear energy plans “in the next week or so”, because some of the underlying assumptions, such as Eskom’s generation performance, highlighted in the IRP 2019 plan have changed.

“If there are complexities, or the process of the 2500MW build programme is compromised, and on our own version, having studied the process objectively, we find that it is compromised, we have a duty to pull it back, to clean it so that you don’t conflate the science and the process. Because when you misstep on the process, you are inviting legal practitioners to enter the domain of science,” he said.

“We are cleaning the process, making it as democratic as possible. Those who’ve got objections can raise those objections based on the science … It’s important that the process is credible.”

Ramokgopa said the summit had gathered some of the country’s top scientists to tackle the nuclear issue and to make it “fashionable, funky, youthful and female”.  

“The point I want to make is that nuclear energy is part of the energy mix. Nuclear is part of the future. It’s indispensable to the attainment of energy sovereignty in this country. Science must trump emotions and politics.”

He said nuclear is also competitive from a capital cost point of view, because the use of small modular reactors, which could be placed close to sources of consumption, would mean Eskom would not have to expand its distribution lines and the country could also export its nuclear energy skills to the rest of the continent.

South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) chief executive Loyiso Tyabshe said the R2.6 billion revenue business was “running very profitably” and 60% of its revenue comes from foreign sales in the US, Europe and Asia.

The state-owned company is responsible for processing source material, including uranium enrichment and research and development in nuclear energy and radiation sciences, co-operating with institutions locally and internationally.

“Necsa is at the leading edge in that we are the first in the world to move our reactor from using highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium. The rest of the world is following us,” he said. “Our isotopes occupy 20% of the global market. We need to sustain that and improve wherever possible.” 

He said the company employs 1600 people and this could be tripled if plans to expand nuclear energy generation go ahead.

National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute chief executive Alan Carolissen said there was a need to demystify the myths associated with radioactive waste and nuclear energy.

“Currently, the debate is about nuclear energy, the power side. I’m not hearing anybody telling Africans and the world, what are we doing in terms of our radio isotope manufacturing. If we don’t exploit our nuclear energy, we cannot go for a CT scan. We cannot get radiation therapy.

“Nuclear technology is not corrupt. People are corrupt,” he said.

This comes as eThekwini metro mayor Cyril Xaba announced at the city’s 2024-25 summer season campaign on Wednesday that work on repairing wastewater treatment plants was nearing completion. 

Xaba said the city expects about 1.3 million visitors and to achieve hotel occupancy of more than 65% in the summer holiday season.

“We want to assure our visitors that we have put measures in place to guarantee their safety and that our beaches as well as swimming pools are safe for swimming,” he said..

“A lot of effort has been put into repairing and upgrading our sanitation infrastructure, especially along the coastal line to prevent raw sewerage from polluting our beaches. This includes the upgrading of 10 wastewater treatment plants which handle 90% of the sewerage in the city.” 

Xaba said work on fixing seven of the plants had been completed and he was awaiting a report regarding the repairs to the remaining three plants.

He added that there was an ongoing programme to ensure that all street lights and CCTV cameras across the city were “fully operational and visible policing had been heightened at tourist attractions”.

According to the latest data released by eThekwini metro on 3 September, five beaches remain closed because of high levels of E coli — Battery, Country Club, eThekwini, Laguna and Reunion.

Asked about these beach closures, Xaba said dealing with the sewerage problem remained a “work in progress”.

Potable water

Apart from the pollution of beach water, eThekwini United Ratepayers, Business and Civics Organisation this week wrote to Ramaphosa, the departments of water and sanitation, forestry fisheries and the environment and cooperative governance and traditional affairs, as well as the South African Human Rights Commission, warning of a impending drinking water crisis. 

This is after high levels of raw sewage entered uMngeni and Msunduzi and rivers. The consequent growth of algae is blocking the filters of  wastewater treatment works plants.  The organisation represents 15 ratepayers associations across the city.

The organisation’s chairperson, Allison Schoeman, warned in the letter that residents were concerned about “the impending risk of a major water shortage” in the metro. 

She highlighted incidents of industrial pollution and sewage contamination of uMngeni and Msunduzi rivers dating back to 2019, saying that by August 2024 the pollution had “reached a tipping point”. The capacity of the Durban Heights Water Treatment Plant to treat water has been caused by algae “that proliferate under conditions created

 by high pollution levels, including untreated sewage and industrial runoff”.   

She said the plant, which supplies about 55% of Durban’s potable water, is as a result now operating under severe strain.

“With Durban’s hot summer season approaching, the algae problem will escalate rapidly, as high temperatures will create ideal conditions for algae proliferation. This will worsen the current situation and could overwhelm the plant’s capacity to treat the water effectively.  The growing risk of the plant losing its operational capacity would have devastating consequences, threatening the livelihoods and health of millions of residents.”

She warned that the government’s failure to urgently act could lead to “catastrophic public health outcomes” and “provoke widespread unrest similar to the violent riots experienced in July 2021.”

In the letter, residents demand: 

• An immediate investigation into the sources of pollution affecting uMngeni and Msunduzi rivers, particularly the causes of the latest spills and ongoing sewage blockages;

• Public disclosure of information regarding the environmental response to the  2019 Willowton industrial spill into the Msunduzi River;

• A detailed remedial action plan to restore the river systems and prevent further contamination; 

• Serious consequence management against officials whose negligence or failure to take swift action led to the current state of the Msunduzi River and its effect on eThekwini’s water supply; and

• A meeting with uMngeni Water, the department of water and sanitation, as well as the municipalities of Msunduzi, uMngeni, uMgungundlovu and eThekwini to discuss steps being taken to prevent a greater water crisis.

Speaking to the Mail & Guardian on Wednesday, Schoeman said she had written the letter driven by a “profound sense of urgency”.

 “We are living through times where the stakes couldn’t be higher, and it feels as though our government and state-owned companies seemingly fail to grasp the magnitude of the challenges,” Schoeman said.

“The violent unrest of 2021 still weighs heavily on us all. So many in our community are still grieving the loss of loved ones, and the emotional scars left by that week have not healed. We live each day with a deep sense of fear.”

She said the effect of eThekwini’s infrastructure failure over the past three years had been “disastrous” and as a professional in the property market for 22 years, business had never been this bad.

“High interest rates have compounded the strain on the property market, but in eThekwini, the challenges go deeper. People no longer want to invest here, fearing the degradation of infrastructure and the lack of meaningful solutions.

“Water is life, and once our water sources are compromised, the cost of securing access will be unbearable for most. Some have already capitalised on the water crisis by establishing a lucrative revenue stream in providing alternative water supply.

“We’re already seeing the elderly in our community making impossible choices between basic hygiene and the ability to afford food. This is the cost of living in eThekwini today — where many sacrifice their dignity just to survive,” Schoeman said.

eThekwini metro spokesperson referred questions regarding the residents’ letter to uMngeni-uThukela Water, which had not responded at the time of publication.

However, uMngeni-uThukela Water said in a statement last week that the increased volumes of algae had clogged the filters of the Durban Heights Water Works and it was working to rid the water of excess algae. 

“Our water quality monitoring has also been increased in order to detect and act against the presence of algae in raw water from the Albert Falls-Nagle Dam system. While the situation has not yet normalised, there are promising signs of a decrease in the algal count.”

Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the Presidential eThekwini Working Group set up in February, comprising “key stakeholders from all levels of government”, has made some progress “supported by the new mayor and other leaders who have been brought in to assist the metro”.

The departments of water and sanitation, forestry, fisheries and the environment and cooperative governance and traditional affairs and Msunduzi municipality had not responded to questions by the time of publication.

Smiso Nkosi, the deputy director in the office of Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) commissioner Teboho Maruping, on Tuesday highlighted the findings of the department’s Follow the Money project, which aims to verify the R62.3 billion of TERS payments distributed during 2020 and 2021.

Nkosi said the aim of the project was to ensure the funds did reach the intended beneficiaries at the right time and were not abused or misused by employers. The department had employed 27 firms to complete the verification process.

He said the department had so far verified R34.7 billion in payouts, of which R2.5 billion in fraudulent payments had been recovered so far. Most cases were uncovered in Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, followed by the Eastern Cape, the Free State and the Western Cape.

Among the invalid claims uncovered during the audit have been instances where employers deducted a UIF fee on Ters funds, employers told workers they were giving them the funds merely as loans and staff were paid less than was due to them.

In one case a company that was supposedly based in the Free State had defrauded the department of R 1 770 249 by filing claims using the identity numbers of people who were not employees, Nkosi said.

“The business had never traded before lockdown and was based in the Free State. The ‘employees’ they applied for are in KZN and when we spoke to them they said they had never been to the Free State,” he said during a seminar for employers in Umhlanga.

In other cases the directors of a company where employees had last worked in 1980 resigned immediately after receiving R 2 923 481.38 in Ters funds; a café with just three employees applied for 306 staff and got payouts totalling R 3 706 848.98; and in a third case a resident claimed R582 000.40 for a local business that did not exist and was never registered with the Companies Intellectual Property Commission.

Elsewhere, an employer collected identity numbers to claim R 1 933 690.25 and after the matter was investigated signed an admission of debt for the full amount received. Another employer who colluded with a labour broker and Zimbabweans to claim R 14 033 858.39 for fictitious employees has also signed an admission of debt.

Nkosi said 16 people have been convicted of committing Ters-related fraud, theft and money laundering crimes and face sentences ranging from suspended prison terms to 20 years direct imprisonment.

All companies to which benefits were directly into their bank accounts to disburse funds to their employees will be investigated for potential fraud, he added.

“We are a department that has zero tolerance for fraud. Our methods of recovery are different and once we follow the money to fraud it goes to the Fusion Centre,” Nkosi said.

The centre is a governmental anti-corruption task team that was founded in 2020, comprising the National Prosecuting Authority, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (the Hawks), the South African Police Service and the Asset Forfeiture Unit.

Nkosi said businesses’ assets such as vehicles and cars that had been purchased with fraudulently obtained funds would be seized by the state and sold to recover the money, while perpetrators face criminal charges.

He advised employers who realise they have erred from following the law regarding Ters payments to admit this upfront to auditors and resolve the matter so their cases can be closed.

MPs heatedly debated the problem in the National Assembly last week after police minister Senzo Mchunu said he was signing agreements with the City of Cape Town and Durban followed by similar agreements in other provinces to deal with the growing crisis that has spread from construction to other business sectors.

There needs to be a “step change” in policy to deal with the construction mafia who often demand to be paid up to 30% of the value of a construction project, without doing any work, South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Alan Mukoki said.

“Some of them are just bands of gangsters, people who just take advantage of the fact that they can, and all of them are reflecting a deteriorating situation when it comes to safety and security because it’s very easy to intimidate people who are on the building site, because police visibility is still a problem. It’s not like we don’t know there are extorters around these sites,” he said.

“You can go to any city, New York, London and Tokyo and at almost every traffic light there are uniformed police there armed, and in their cars patrolling … We did it during the (Soccer) World Cup in 2010. You couldn’t go to any mall or major traffic intersection without the visibility of the cops.

“So, they know about it. Why do they not do it? I don’t understand. But when we go to big political rallies, we’ll find that there are enough cops there. We go to sporting events, there are lots and lots of cops. So, I think that we do need to change the attitude as it relates to police visibility and the prevention of crime.”

Site invasions in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Western Cape were creating an “untenable situation”, said Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business chief executive and chairperson of the Association of South African Chambers, Melanie Veness.

“These invasions are driving up costs exponentially and discouraging investment. The site disruptions cause endless delays in building projects, which escalate costs, and the threat of invasion necessitates the factoring in of additional armed security for sites for the duration of projects, which comes at a hefty premium,” Veness said.

“This is unsustainable. The on-site threats of violence and targeting of individuals discourages the participation of professionals and is putting a damper on future development.”

She added that “harassment, violence, and extortion” are not the means to achieve transformation.  

“This behaviour is criminal and it causes the affected areas extreme reputational damage, sabotaging the economy and costing jobs. The adoption of a zero-tolerance approach in KZN is appreciated, it is critical that this practice be stamped out as soon as possible to avoid additional economic fallout.”

Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Palesa Phili said local businesses were most concerned about illegal business forums’ “growing disregard for the law” within the eThekwini metro.

“A lot of KwaZulu-Natal businesses are being held hostage by these groups. The expansion of extortion markets in KwaZulu-Natal has taken a different route from those in Gauteng,” Phili said.

“Instead of registering as security companies, extortion networks in KwaZulu-Natal began forming associations frequently referred to as ‘business forums’ to divert funds from government contracts and engage in extortion of construction companies,” she said.

The extortion demands appear to be linked to the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act of 2017 and its regulations that stipulated that 30% of public procurement contracts over the value of R30 million be subcontracted to designated groups such as small businesses.

However, these regulations were found to be unlawful by the constitutional court in 2022 and the rules have since changed, although there is still a requirement to subcontract work to the groups.

“Business forums have even extorted small and medium-sized enterprises, including black-owned companies, the very operations the 30% was intended to benefit,” Phili said.

“This modus operandi has the potential to lead to significant job losses, weakening of the construction value chain and disinvestment in KwaZulu-Natal due to an increase in its risk profile,” Phili said.

“The acts of so-called ‘construction mafias’ are creating unnecessary risks to legitimate businesses. Communities live in fear of extortion gangs, it creates a sense of hopelessness and a significant alienation from those government and municipal institutions that are supposed to look after the security and interests of ordinary citizens.”

Businesses ruined by extortion ranged from individual subsistence ones in townships to development projects worth millions that have been abandoned by international investors.

“This form of economic sabotage is leading to projects being delayed resulting in significant economic and financial losses. Such elements cannot be dealt with using a soft approach, the safety and security of business property, employees are constantly at risk from such groups. We encourage the provincial government to increase its efforts to eradicate such behaviour,” Phili said.

The Durban chamber has noted some of the steps the government has taken to confront the problem, including the establishment of a 24-hour hotline to report the crime in the Eastern Cape, and the formation of a task team in KwaZulu-Natal that is operating via the eThekwini Presidential Safety and Security Working Group.

The illegal forums are affecting every dimension — costs, quality and time schedule — of how a construction company’s performance and bottom line is measured, said Southern African Institute of Steel Construction chief executive Amanuel Gebremeskel said.

The forums are a “big problem” especially on construction sites that are not in affluent areas like Sandton but rather in economically depressed rural or semi-rural areas.

“It affects projects in all the dimensions that you can imagine that we use in construction for project management, which would be in terms of time, cost and quality,” Gebremeskel said, relating how companies would plan their equipment and staff ahead of time but then a group of people would turn up and demand jobs on the site or a portion of their revenue.

“That is very disruptive  in terms of time because then your entire plan is essentially scuttled, but also in terms of the cost of the project, because now you don’t actually know how much this project is going to cost you to build, because you have these additional costs that were unplanned,” Gebremeskel said.

“And then finally, you have the issue of quality, which is, if you do have to hire people that you did not have in your plans ahead of time, then that probably means that they are not trained.”

In some cases companies, under duress, will train and employ a group of these workers who arrived “in large numbers, sometimes armed” or hire them for rudimentary jobs, only to be disrupted by a second group demanding jobs.

“The construction industry is starting to adjust to this awkward way of working, to employ some of them doing what would be relatively low-skilled work. It could be as simple as cleaning, but could be a bit more, maybe putting things in the right order, doing simple work that has nothing to do with assembling components,” he said. “So this is not simply a problem if you deal with one group and you’re done. It can be very complicated.”

In one case an international construction company packed up and fled in their vehicles when the construction mafia arrived on site but a local contractor eventually managed to mediate and get them to return to the project.

“The basic problem is that there’s not sufficient demand in the industry in general, to employ people, it’s a problem of poverty and lack of employment. So some of the groups of mafia groups that come to business forums are actually people who used to work for construction companies. Some of these industry guys actually know them,” Gebremeskel said.

“Cosatu demands that the match on Saturday be aired live on SABC or at least be flighted 30 minutes later, which would not cost any money or undermine Super Sport’s rights,” Cosatu’s Western Cape provincial secretary, Malvern de Bruyn, said in a statement on Friday.

He said showing the match only on Multichoice’s DSTV platform would shut out working class families who cannot afford satellite television.

“This is a sad day for working class families and a sad indictment to the government of national unity. This represents a failure of public policy to respond to public priority issues that foster national unity,” De Bruyn said.

He accused McKenzie of having “presented a gimmick” regarding the airing of last Saturday’s Springbok’s match against New Zealand on SABC and that he had “a real begging bowl approach to those who benefit and control South African sports”.

“It again shows that greed for money is put ahead of the interest of all South Africans and that politicians regardless of party bow at the altar of greed,” he said.

“Cosatu Western Cape calls on the government, in particular President Cyril Ramaphosa, to urgently intervene in this crisis to ensure that at least the games that the Springboks are playing are broadcast live on SABC.”

A spokesperson for Multichoice, the owner of the rights to air the rugby matches, said “the broadcast of the Springboks vs All Blacks match on SABC on 31 August was a once-off event, to celebrate 30 Years of Democracy”.

McKenzie’s spokesperson had not responded to questions by the time of publication. The presidency could also not be reached for comment.

SABC spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo confirmed on Saturday that the SABC will not televise the rugby match between South Africa and New Zealand from Cape Town.

“The SABC had only reached an agreement with Supersport for last week’s match in commemoration of 30 years of Democracy. The SABC will only broadcast today’s match on its African Language radio Stations,  RSG and Radio 2000,” Seapolelo said.

“It must be noted that the SABC is committed to broadcasting sports of national interest and will always strive to ensure that the millions of South Africans are not left out, however it is also not always guaranteed that the SABC will secure these rights due to numerous factors including the exorbitant costs of the acquisition of sub licensing and the commercial imperative of the rights holders,” she said.

This story was updated with comments from the SABC.

Four years later Mqenebe, a mechanical engineer who had visited the construction site purely on chamber business to discuss a sub-contracting dispute in 2020, says he still lives in pain after suffering spinal damage during the beating. He has had to undergo regular medical treatment for his injuries.

Mqenebe is one of many legitimate business people who have suffered at the hands of so-called business forums — the “construction mafia” — who, often armed with AK47s and other weapons, use the threat of violence to demand contracts or payments of up to 30% of the value of construction projects without doing any work.

The extortionists have now moved into the private sphere, where pensioners as well as other business sectors such as health, education and retail are targeted.

The construction mafia and extortionists were the subject of a heated debate in the National Assembly this week.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu — who outlined plans to combat the construction mafia and crimes of extortion — concurred with MPs from across the political spectrum that this is “tearing apart the fabric of society” and leaving people living in fear. 

Some legislators also alleged that the police are “embedded” in the illegal activities.

According to police and City of Cape Town reports, recent victims of the construction mafia, some of which were highlighted during the debate, have included:

• City of Cape Town official Wendy Kloppers was shot 16 times and killed while conducting an inspection at the Symphony Way housing project in Delft in February 2023.

 • Three construction workers were shot and wounded at the same site a week before Kloppers’ murder after the city took a tough stance on extortionists. A petrol bomb was also thrown at the site.

• A construction worker was shot and killed on the Delft Main Road construction site in May 2023. 

 • Stefanutti Stocks coastal manager Matthew Horwill survived an attempted murder when an armed person opened fire on him when he arrived at the construction company’s head office in Pinetown in KwaZulu-Natal in June this year.

Mqenebe said he had filed complaints with the public protector, the police, the office of the premier in the Free State and the provincial department of community safety, roads and transport regarding the attack and the prevalence of illegal business forums in the province. 

But, Mqenebe said, these have mostly fallen on deaf ears.

He said the men attacked him when he went to a site to join other business chamber members at a meeting with Danie van Rensburg — who, at the time, represented the contractors, Phezulu Plant and Down Touch Investments — and Sello Bokoro, the chief engineer at the Free State transport department, to discuss the awarding of subcontracts.

Mqenebe said he and the two chamber members arrived early for the meeting and the alleged members of the illegal “Nala Business Forum” — fashioning its name after the local chamber that is affiliated to the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry — arrived 15 minutes before it was supposed to start. 

Neither Van Rensburg nor Bokoro were present on site.

“While we are waiting, there comes another bakkie. It came through the security gate, with the three guys who were part of the illegal forum,” Mqenebe said.

Mqenebe said he had no idea how the men knew about the site meeting. 

The two chamber members told the men that the meeting was to find out who had been awarded contracts. The men then threatened the members, who fled the scene.

“And then they went for me. They grabbed me. They called me ‘the difficult one’. They wanted to pull me out of the site office. They dragged me. My glasses fell. Then they started assaulting me with their fists, they kicked me,” Mqenebe recalled.

“They told me I’m the trouble one; 

I want to take food out of their mouth, and they want to teach me a lesson today. I still live with the trauma of that incident that happened on 20  January 2020.”

Mqenebe opened a case of common assault against the three men, whose names are known to the Mail & Guardian, at the Viljoenskroon police station. But only one paid an admission-of-guilt fine, while the charges were dropped against the other two — without Mqenebe’s knowledge.

This news came as a shock to him when the police confirmed the status of the case in response to questions from the M&G on Wednesday.

Free State police spokesperson Captain Loraine Earle said three men had been charged with common assault at the building site but the cases against two of them had been withdrawn at the Viljoenskroon magistrate’s court.

“Mr Malale paid an admission-of-guilt fine of R300 on 6 July 2020,” Earle said.

Mqenebe said this “simply means someone corruptly withdrew our case”.

“In court they wanted us to amicably resolve it and we denied it. It is totally wrong that the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] has withdrawn our case without our knowledge. I feel dumbfounded by the sentence as well,” he said.

Mqenebe said it also “pained” him that neither the Free State community safety, roads and transport department nor Phezulu Plant and Down Touch have provided him with an incident report regarding the assault, which would have enabled him to file a workman’s compensation claim with the department of labour.

Asked about the incident report this week, Van Rensburg said Mqenebe was “never employed by us or entered in any contract with us”.

“He attended a meeting with other subcontractors and was allegedly assaulted on the premises next door to our site camp,” Van Rensburg said.

Asked why the department of community safety, roads and transport had not yet investigated Mqenebe’s assault, irregular tenders and illegal business forums, spokesperson Hillary Mophethe said the department had investigated the allegations regarding illegal forums and obtained reports from its project manager, the contractor and the project steering committee. 

She said Mqenebe had also been advised to open a case with the police. “In terms of sections 9 and 12 of Preferential Procurement Regulations, 2017, as well as Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPFA), 2000, which were applicable … the process of procurement of appointment of local subcontractors was in line with the legislative requirement.”

She said none of the businesses appointed were listed on the treasury’s restricted supplier database.

Mophethe said the department would not consider illegal business forums’ participation in projects.

The public protector’s spokesperson, Khulu Phasiwe, said Mqenebe’s complaint had been closed because he had not provided sufficient information about the companies contracted. “In most contracts, subcontractors are appointed by the main contractor and not by the departments. The information requested from the complainant would have enabled the PPSA [Public Protector of South Africa] to determine if in this instance the department had indeed appointed the subcontractors. There was insufficient information to refer the matter to the department or the SAPS [South African Police Service].” 

But Mqenebe said he had provided the public protector with the identity numbers of his attackers and had expected that the office would have verified any links to construction companies.

The office of Free State Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae could not be reached for comment.

Earle referred questions about Mqenebe’s report regarding the illegal forums to a national spokesperson, who had not responded by the time of publication.

In parliament this week, MPs urged the police to take strong action against extortion and the activities of the construction mafia, which Mchunu said were crimes mainly in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

He said the modus operandi in the “heinous acts” of extortion was well known. “Most of them are individuals who do not want to work but rather choose to parade as armies of murderous parasites. That must be fought and rejected by society. They are often armed, operating in groups and instil fear and chaos. The relative silence of communities and low reporting is often due to these fears.”

Mchunu said the police had clashed with extortionists in Milnerton, Cape Town, during which four suspects were killed and four were injured, while two fled the scene.

He said his department and the SAPS have signed an agreement with the City of Cape Town to fight these and other crimes and would be signing similar deals with other provincial and local governments, starting with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal this month.

This was the unequivocal agreement across all political parties during a parliamentary debate on the construction mafia and rampant extortion after Police Minister Senzo Mchunu outlined the South African Police Services (SAPS) plan of action to deal with the criminals.

Mchunu said parts of the country face a “wave of extortion and other related crimes”, with Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape accounting for 73% of all reported crimes.

“Extortion [has] been emerging over time and it has now reached levels where all communities in our country beyond the four provinces have become very angry, bitter and agitated,” Mchunu said.

“The pain has gone very deep. The mood expressed in communities all around the country is also reflective of statements made in the house unanimously against these crimes in the short past. The current socio-economic conditions are militating against low crime levels in the country and need to be addressed urgently by this house and also by the executive.”

He said the modus operandi of the perpetrators of extortion was well known. “They are often armed, operating in groups and instilling fear and chaos. The relative silence of communities and low reporting is often due to these fears.”

Mchunu said police were “hard at work” fighting these crimes daily and had recently, following intelligence, clashed with extortionists during an operation in Milnerton, Cape Town. Four suspects were killed in the shootout with police and four were injured, while two fled the scene.

He said in the Eastern Cape police were focusing operations to fight extortion in Mthatha and Nelson Mandela Bay, as well as the illegal occupation of buildings and stock theft.

“We are seeing shocking incidents of lowest morality where church services and funerals and other family related functions get disrupted by these extortionists,” he said.

Police in Mpumalanga had arrested three suspects for extortion. In Gauteng, three people were arrested in Bronkhorstspruit for extortion and police were also aware of cases in Soweto.

“In the Free State, the target of extortionists include pensioners … generally, there’s more extortion going on in the communities than meets the eye. We have to improve intelligence. We have to find information on our own in terms of profiling these criminals, because communities do report, but not enough,” Mchnunu said.

He said his ministry and the SAPS had signed an operational plan with the City of Cape Town to tackle crime which involved working with community policing forums, city police and private security companies. This alignment would help in terms of resources.

His department will meet government leaders in Gauteng on Thursday and KwaZulu-Natal later this month. 

“We’re also holding a series of meetings with the state department, with sister departments, on collaboration against crime,as per the National Integrated Crime Prevention Strategy,” Mchunu said.

MPs urged the minister to take a tough stance against extortion, which they said had left citizens fearing for their lives. They also raised concern that in some cases the police were complicit in the extortion, leaving citizens “truly helpless”.

Extortion is a “rapidly escalating threat that affects every single layer of society … from large corporations to smaller township businesses and even our schools”, Democratic Alliance MP Ian Cameron said.

“It is deeply rooted and it’s an issue that is jeopardising economic stability and tears at the social fabric of every single part of our country, and it has become a national crisis,” he added.

Economic Freedom Fighters MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi alleged that some police officers work with extortionists, which is why they claim they cannot identify suspects.

“The reason the police are claiming ignorance is because the police are embedded. It is  because correctional services are embedded,” he said.

Build One South Africa MP Mmusi Maimane said citizens lived in fear and “when they call the police, sometimes police don’t show up, and when the police do show up, sometimes they are demanding bribes themselves”.

“I’m here to say to you, we cannot afford another talk. What we’ve got to be doing here today is making a declaration of war on crime,” he said.

Despite incurring a loss 43.4% more than the R5.7 billion loss in 2022/3, the state-owned rail, port and pipeline company invested significantly in new infrastructure, improved its operational performance, and grew its rail and port cargo volumes, Transnet executives said at a media briefing on its financial results on Monday.

While the challenges facing the logistics group have been “years in the making”, its recovery plan, implemented in October 2023, is starting to bear fruit, chairperson Andile Sanqu said. The plan has proposed interventions to turn around the business over a six, 12 and 18 month period.

“When we met about a year ago to table the annual results for the 2022/23 financial year, we outlined to you the crisis facing the organisation,” Sanqu said.

He said Transnet had been plagued by severe operational and financial underperformance which had also “dampened” the country’s economic performance, adding: “It was clear that urgent intervention was required to arrest the decline in performance and stabilise operations.”

The latest annual results indicated  that there have been “some marginal improvements in performance” which have resulted in a slight improvement in the loss position compared to last year, Sanqu said.

However, this was negatively affected by the R4.7 billion accounting provision the company had to make for the Natref matter involving Total and Sasol’s dispute about historical tariffs charged under an apartheid-era agreement that is currently before the court. 

Transnet chief executive Michelle Phillips said Transnet Freight Rail’s rail volumes, which account for 44% of revenue, increased 1.5% to 151.17 million tonnes from 149.5 million tonnes in 2022/23, slightly short of the 154 million tonne target set in the recovery plan, while port cargo volumes grew 2.9% to 4.152 million twenty-foot equivalent units.

Despite achieving revenue of R39 billion, Transnet Freight Rail continued to face “significant challenges including locomotive shortages, persistent issues with infrastructure, vandalism and theft.”

“Security incidents have risen by 5.4% in the period under review. Cable theft made up 57% of the incidents experienced, resulting in theft of over 1000 kilometres of cable. The financial effect is quite extensive,” Phillips said.

“We see an impact of R4.2 billion, exceeding last year’s 3.7 billion rand loss, the revenue losses from disruptions reached 2.1 billion, while security costs amount to 1.9 billion.”

The company also incurred expenses of R162 million to replace damaged rail infrastructure. Phillips said the liberalisation of the rail and port industries is underway. 

“The introduction of third party access will allow the private sector train operating companies to operate on our rail network, fostering healthy competition and driving efficiency and service improvements. We are also seeing an expansion of private terminal operators into services such as containers, which were previously managed exclusively by Transnet,” she said.

“These changes are designed to modernise the sector and increase private sector participation, ensuring that Transnet remains competitive in a rapidly evolving environment.”

Strategic initiatives include the development of a coastal accumulation facility and import terminal at Durban. 

“The import terminal is for us to provide storage facilities for new entrants and previously disadvantaged South Africans, so that they can enter the market and move product within the country,” Phillips said.

“We are also working on a new jet fuel pipeline, which we call PL6, which is intended to move jet fuel to OR Tambo, and then also our private sector participation venture with Vopak terminals in the establishment and construction of the LNG terminal at Richards Bay.”

She said Transnet is also repurposing its Lily Pipeline that is currently used to transport methane rich gas, to move natural gas in support of the transition to cleaner fuels.

Transnet Group chief financial officer Nosipho Maphumulo said the company reported 12 % growth in revenue to R76.7 billion while net operating expenditure grew by 19.2% to R54.7 billion, mainly due to the impact of third-party claims in litigation, increased personnel, security, energy (including electricity for rail), material and maintenance costs.  

However, without the Natref litigation costs expenditure would have grown by 8.8% compared to 4.3% in 2022/23. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation decreased 3,6% to R22 billion.

She said the company’s debt balance was R137 billion up from R130 067 in the previous financial year.  

“Regrettably, we are rated below investment grade (with international rating agencies Moody’s and S&P Global), and with the improvements, with the recovery plan, we do envisage that we as Transnet, would be able to improve our credit rating on a sustainable basis in the future,” Maphumulo said.

She said the company had received an unqualified audit report from the auditor general and there had been “substantial improvement” in irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, with the number of incidents reported dropped to 1 763 in 2023/24 from 2 801 in 2022/3 and 3 869 in R2021/22.

“In 2021 irregular expenditure was just under R4 billion. And as at the end of 2024 we had reduced that number to be below R2 billion. So, we continue our efforts in this regard to make sure that we run a clean organisation,” she said.

The business was “steadily and surely” getting to a point where the availability of critical equipment and supplies for rail and ports as well as its pipeline division was improving with orders of scores of equipment including rubber tyred gantry cranes, straddles, ship to shore cranes, haulers, helicopters and tugboats on order for commissioning between 2024 and 2026.

Maphumulo said there were three pillars to optimising the business’s balance sheet which included its own efforts driven by the recovery plan and working together with its lenders and shareholders to find innovative solutions.  

“The last one, not the least, is cost reduction and efficiency. We continue with our efforts to reduce our cost to serve as Transnet. And if we reduce our cost to serve, we move more volumes, we do lots of self-help, and we dispose of lots of non-core items in our business there is no reason why Transnet will not return a profit,” She said.

“We’ve set ourselves a target of R1 billion by the end of the 2024 financial year. It’s not going to be easy, but if we all work together, all the Transnet employees, our customers, our service providers, our lenders, all our stakeholders, I have no doubt in my mind that we will be able to return Transnet to its glory days. We’ll be able to return Transnet, at least in this year, to profitability.”

Badzhi, 55, said this week that she is afraid her rapists, now aged 22, or other violent men will attack her again because the police and justice system have failed her.

The first rape took place in 2020 and the second in 2022 in rural Limpopo. It is South Africa’s smallest province but has the highest per capita rate of calls for help, according to the Tears Foundation.

“I’m struggling to survive. I have nowhere else to go. I’m a woman staying alone. I don’t feel safe. I don’t know what they are planning. Is someone else planning to come again?” said Badzhi.

The men are also facing charges of intimidation. The first, who is now in custody, chased Badzhi down the street threatening to kill her.

“He came to my house four times asking me, ‘Why did you let me get arrested? You know I have grade 12 and my life will stop now because of you.’ 

“He also went to my mother before she died and said, ‘Why can’t we sit and talk about this? Because my time is wasted now because of that case.’”

He also offered Badzhi blood money if she would withdraw the charge.

“The police are failing me because, since 2020, I am just going up and down, but nothing is happening. There’s no progress in both cases. The cases are always remanded. Sometimes I’m not informed that there’s a court [appearance],” she said.

Badzhi said police collected fingerprints and DNA from the scene of the first rape and that suspect has been arrested on charges of rape and intimidation. But the fingerprints police collected eight days after the second rape have not been checked against the department of home affairs’ database to identify the man, who remains at large. The DNA evidence took three years to process.

This is the crux of a complaint that Fiona Nicholson — who runs the nonprofit PracSol and is the founder of the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme, which over the past 20 years has helped more than 10  000 sexual assault and rape victims in Limpopo — has filed with the Thohoyandou police commander, the Independent Police Investigating Directorate (Ipid), the department of women, youth and people with disabilities, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the presidency over the past two years. 

Nicholson alleged that police are not checking the fingerprints of suspects in the more than 40  000 rape cases reported annually against the database of the home affairs department. This is because the databases are not electronically connected to allow for automated inquiries.

“The Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Act 6 of 2010 provides for the matching of fingerprints to any database in the country, with specific reference to the department of home affairs. But, 14 years later, that ruling has still not been implemented,” Nicholson said.

“The SAPS [South African Police Service] continue to match fingerprints only to their own database, which is limited to prints of known criminals or suspects from previous investigations. If a rapist is a first offender, they have no chance of identifying him or her.

“The home affairs database, to which the banks have been linked for decades, have the prints of everyone legally in the country.”

“SAPS rely almost entirely on DNA evidence, for which there is a very lengthy delay, causing the victim to live in fear of reprisals or reoccurrence for years.

“If linked to the home affairs database, and if fingerprints were routinely sought at the scene of the crime, the perpetrator could be identified and arrested within a few days.”

Nicholson said an email from a senior officer, which the Mail & Guardian has seen, acknowledges that the police do not have automated access to the home affairs database. A member of the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit also wrote to her, saying that the police only check the home affairs database in “high-profile” cases. 

“So Badzhi is a rural ‘nobody’ who doesn’t warrant home affairs comparison,” Nicholson said.

She added that as the case drags on, Badzhi lives in fear — and with the twisted social stigma of rape that blames the victim.

Nicholson said none of the departments have responded to her complaint, apart from the senior police officer and the human rights commission, which dismissed it.

Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Hlulani Mashaba told the M&G this week that the police do access the home affairs database.

“Members of SAPS from the division, detective and forensic carry out the function without any hindrance, the allegations levelled against the police are unfounded and devoid of truth. The police are obligated to investigate crime or detect crime, therefore the assertion that the police are hesitant to search against other databases as more suspects will likely be identified is incorrect.” 

He said there was no reason to search for fingerprints for the first suspect in Badzhi’s case because he has a criminal record for assault.

“He also has two pending cases, awaiting trial for rape, as well as a case of intimidation. He is currently in custody and will appear before Thohoyandou regional court on 2  September.” 

 Mashaba said the second suspect was facing a case of intimidation and police had warned him and taken DNA evidence.

He said Limpopo — especially Thohoyandou, Mankweng and Seshego — had recently recorded a rise in cases of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) mostly occurring “in the comfort of homes”.

“We are paying particular attention to our investigation capability to enhance our detection rate and in turn the conviction rate by our courts.

“It is disappointing that despite all concerted efforts, rape and sexual assault keep popping their ugly head,” Mashaba said. “We have increased the personnel within the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit, including revamping our victim friendly rooms.”

According to the latest police crime statistics, during 2022-23, 42  780 counts of rape were reported nationally, an increase of 2.5% from the previous year, while 7  483 counts of sexual assault were recorded.

The National Prosecuting Authority finalised 10% (about 4  600) of these rape and sexual offenses cases in 2023, said Gareth Newham, the head of justice and violence prevention at the Institute for Security Studies. “But it’s not as simple as that because rape cases take a period of time to finalise.”

He agreed with Nicholson that the possible legal reasons for not checking the home affairs database to speed up the process must be investigated.

He said she was “absolutely right” that the police have not managed to gain automatic access to the national database of fingerprints held by home affairs, “which would make identifying suspects far easier and quicker”.

Newham said it is estimated that just one in nine cases of sexual assault and rape are reported to the police. “The actual extent is much higher than what the police are actually dealing with. And reports show that as low as 4% of actual cases ever end up in court.”

Ipid referred the M&G’s request for comment to the Civilian Secretariat for Police Services (CSP). 

The department of women spokesperson, Cassius Selala, said the cases “fall under the jurisdiction of the SAPS”.

“The department does not interfere with the criminal justice system but does support the pursuit of justice … The department is confident that the issues brought up by the complainant are being handled by the justice system,” Selala said.

He said the National Council on GBVF “will be able to deal with such concerns and hold institutions accountable”.

The presidency, the human rights commission and the CSP had not responded to questions by the time of publication.

According to police crime statistics released on Friday, contact crimes — which include  murder, robbery, sexual offences and assault — increased by 2.6% to 153 657 incidents in the first quarter running from April to June 2024 from the same period in 2023. Murder on its own dipped by 0.5% to 6 198. Sexual offences declined by 0.4% to 11 566.  

Most of these crimes took place in residences (12 472), public places (9 725), liquor outlets (3 445), spaza shops (467) and educational institutions (259).

South Africa’s murder rate per capita is 10.1 per 100 000 people, while rape stands at 15.1 per 100 000 and assault with grievous bodily harm (GBH)  is 61:100 000.

Four of the country’s nine provinces recorded increases in murder cases, with the highest being the Western Cape, followed by North West, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.  All of the top 30 stations for murder were in the Western Cape (11), KwaZulu-Natal (8), Eastern Cape (6) and Gauteng (5). The leading stations were Nyanga, followed by Inanda, Umlazi, Khayelitsha and Harare.

The top five causative factors for murder, attempted murder and assault GBH were arguments, misunderstandings, road rage and provocation; robbery, vigilantism/mob justice; gang-related; and retaliation/revenge punishment. The most frequently used weapon in committing murders were firearms, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, followed by knives and sharp objects.

Murders of women increased 7.9% to 966 during the first quarter, while attempted murders went up by 16% to 1 644, and assault GBH rose by 69% to 13 757 incidents. Similarly, murders of children climbed 7.2% to 314, attempted murder rose by 19.8% to 424 and assault GBH increased 11.5% to 1 596 incidents.

Sexual offences in general declined 0.4% to 11 566, but rapes rose 0.6% to 9 309, with most of them reported in Gauteng (1 921), KwaZulu-Natal (1 895), the Eastern Cape (1 466), and Western Cape (1 037).  

There were 91 rapes and 12 murders reported at educational facilities, including schools, universities, colleges and day care facilities, across the country, of which 74 rapes and nine murders occurred on school premises although not all the victims were learners.

Of the 3 494 kidnappings reported, criminals demanded a ransom in 135 cases, while 30 involved extortion and eight were identified as cases of human trafficking, police crime registrar Major General Thulare Sekhukhune told reporters during the release of the statistics .

Carjacking and robbery at residential and non-residential premises declined 2.7% to 15  230. There were 5 438 carjackings, 5 642 residential robberies and 4 151 non-residential robberies. The number of cash in transit cases dropped 24% to 36, while truck hijackings slid 70% to 429 incidents.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said these statistics told a “sobering story” about the severity of the problems the country faces.

“These numbers represent more than just figures on a page, they reflect the lived realities of our citizens — their fears, their losses, and their hopes for a safer tomorrow. The data is a stark reminder of the urgent need for action,” he said.

“We are confronted with a crisis that threatens the safety of our communities and undermines the stability of our nation. Contact crimes in particular are wreaking havoc and instilling fear. This is unacceptable, and we must confront this challenge with unwavering resolve and strategic precision.”

Mchunu said the most worrying crimes are murder, rape, hijacking, kidnapping for ransom payments and extortion. The ministry’s priorities include the “number one priority” of bringing down crime levels, the professionalisation of the police service and uprooting of corruption, investment in technology and capacitation of the crime intelligence unit to provide better insights and strategic advantages in the fight against criminal networks, he added.

The minister undertook to collaborate with sister departments — including the department of social development, justice, correctional services and basic education — in the fight against crime.

“Together, we will map out areas of cooperation, implementing a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to tackle the root causes of crime and build safer communities,” he said, adding that the police would sign a crime fighting cooperation agreement with the Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town on Friday.

“We will be implementing this model throughout the country. We will not rest until every South African can walk the streets without fear.”