Tackling the Zuma-era Construction Mafia

R63 billion rands worth of projects have been affected by the Construction Mafia, and in this interview with BizNews, Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen states that the biggest obstacle in dealing with it has been how it was created. “And that was when former President Jacob Zuma said in Parliament that there will be a 30% set aside for local communities, because too many people thought that this means that I must personally get 30% of the value of that project. And it gave rise to all of these Construction Mafias. So we must be blunt and honest and say it was a problem created by President Zuma and towards the tail end of his term pushing this populist message out. And now we've got to fix that.” The Deputy Minister goes on to detail the strategy put together for government at this week’s National Construction Summit on Site Disruptions. He also gives an update on Operation Vulindlela. “There are new focus areas coming in Operation Vulindlela and that will be focused on local government in particular because we can't continue with our towns and cities falling apart.”