Jozi’s construction cartel with alleged links to senior ANC councillor

A top councillor, wearing the ANC colours in the City of Johannesburg, stands accused of meddling in and stalling key public infrastructure developments in Gauteng, extorting payments before work can even start. Sithembiso Zungu, though, has denied the claims, threatening our man on the beat, News24 journalist, Tankiso Makhetha, who joins us in this edition of The Lead. Zungu’s currently the ANC’s Chief Whip in council but it’s his former position of chairperson of the Ward 122 Business Forum, based out of Vlakfontein, that acts as the entry point into saga, the latest of which involves extortion allegedly stalling a local primary school refurbishment project. The influential councillor also allegedly served a short stint behind bars for extorting funds out of the Lehae housing project in Lenasia in 2019. Later in the show, the people of Tembisa protest over high electricity fee hikes. Finally, it’s a rare sighting indeed: Knysna’s only elephant, ‘Oupoot’ has been spotted! You can send show host Graeme Raubenheimer a short voice note with your questions or thoughts on this episode to our official The Lead WhatsApp line, that’s: +27 72 562 3179. Mail your comments to thelead@24.com. Editions drop on Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.