Residents help City of Cape Town to fight back against construction mafia
Communities are determined to help the City of Cape Town rid key development projects of extortion rings.
CAPE TOWN - Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says businesses in Philippi have pledged to rally behind the city to protect developmental projects in their area.
The mayor was speaking while conducting a site visit of the MyCiti bus route construction site in Khayelitsha on Friday.
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A security guard was shot and severely injured at the site last month along with a patrol dog.
Philippi township is one of the main areas where extortion syndicates are operating in Cape Town.
The city says it has managed to get residents involved to expose those involved in these sort of rackets, which are delaying its projects.
Hill-Lewis says they will not play into the hands of construction mafia syndicates and ignore its responsibility to deliver services to the people.
"In Philippi, the public is helping us with those disruptions as they desperately want these routes to go ahead. The businesses in Philippi say they will even sponsor additional security that they pay for to make sure this project goes ahead because they can see how much it's going to benefit the society. That's very encouraging."
The city says if there are no further disruptions, the south-east MyCiti bus route project is expected to be completed by the end of next year.