Durban construction bosses under siege

[schumi]

Durban - A shadowy uMlazi business forum that has used violence and intimidation to shut down municipal depots - demanding tenders and contracts - has launched mafia-style tactics on Durban’s private construction industry, imposing their workers on contractors and demanding “protection fees”.

The brazen actions of the Delangokubona Business Forum have rattled construction bosses who are at their wits’ end as to what to do.

In recent weeks members of the forum have stormed at least eight construction sites in Durban and have threatened the lives of contractors, demanding they employ their workers and pay them a fee to ensure no disruptions on site.

“It is nothing but pure thuggery,” a construction company owner told the Daily News.

“The are behaving like the mafia and there is little we can do. Some of the companies they are targeting are JSE-listed companies. They just walk on site and set demands,” the owner said.

He said five men from the forum would storm a construction site and demand to see the “boss”.

“Each of the men have their own Pty (company) and tell you that you must employ four skilled and four unskilled workers from them. On top of that you must give each of them R5 000 a fortnight to ensure there are no disruptions. That money is nothing but protection fees,” he said.

More at:http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/durban-construction-bosses-under-siege-2028207

 

[boxerulez]

Security with rubber bullets on site. can be done for 5k per fortnight.

 

[LaraC]

Delangokubona Business Forum

The forum is probably registered and its directors should be held accountable. It is nothing more than extortion or intimidation.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Security with rubber bullets on site. can be done for 5k per fortnight.

Screw the rubber bullets.. live ammo for the protectionist racket...

 

[ponder]

TIA

 

[MrMag]

Seen it all now bosses without BALLS

 

[jikajoe1]

where is the municipality and provincial government when this is happening?

 

[TrueSeeker]

Of course this is exactly the type of thing our government will do nothing meaningful about.

 

[freddster]

More at:http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/durban-construction-bosses-under-siege-2028207

Threaten someone or their family's lives is already illegal. Haven't they reported this to police, or are the "honourable" SAPS already in cahoots with these criminals?

 

[sly]

This has been happening for years for employers around the George Goch hostel in Denver,JHB.. 3 years ago, doing a software implementation, some people thought we going to take their jobs by putting conveyors and robots, they told the 'chief'. One evening we had someone shoot at the warehouse with a machine gun and the workers didn't come to work the next day. The 'chief' came to see the companies director in the morning at 12 the workers where back at their posts and our project had changed scope regarding mechanization.. HR lady said she's not allowed to hire any general worker outside George Koch hostel.. If anyone of the chiefs people give problems they call the 'chief', next day they behave. This is a JSE listed company

 

[ɹǝuuᴉM]

This has been happening for years for employers around the George Goch hostel in Denver,JHB.. 3 years ago, doing a software implementation, some people thought we going to take their jobs by putting conveyors and robots, they told the 'chief'. One evening we had someone shoot at the warehouse with a machine gun and the workers didn't come to work the next day. The 'chief' came to see the companies director in the morning at 12 the workers where back at their posts and our project had changed scope regarding mechanization.. HR lady said she's not allowed to hire any general worker outside George Koch hostel.. If anyone of the chiefs people give problems they call the 'chief', next day they behave. This is a JSE listed company

I hope your story is a made up one. Surely, things are bad but are they really that bad?

 

[ToxicBunny]

I hope your story is a made up one. Surely, things are bad but are they really that bad?

Around the hostels, they are that bad... regardless of city.

 

[ellyally]

and there is little we can do

Lay charges?

 

[The_Assimilator]

Simplest solution is to fight fire with fire - or to be precise, find out who the members of "Delangokubona Business Forum" are and where they live, then hire someone to burn down their homes while they and their families are sleeping in them.

 

[schumi]

Firm fights tenders mafia

Durban - The latest victim of a “business forum” which has been hijacking construction sites demanding jobs and a slice of the profits spent on Tuesday hiring armed guards and preparing an urgent high court interdict application to fend off a threatened takeover on Thursday.

“I will not be intimidated. I will not bow to their demands and I will not shut down the site,” Elias Mechanicos, the owner of Elias Mechanicos Building and Civil Engineering, told The Mercury on Tuesday in the wake of the threats by the group.

“I have contractual obligations to the city, my staff, suppliers and subcontractors.”

The business forum, based in Umlazi, has been targeting businesses and disrupting municipal services for the past few months because, it alleges, its members are not being awarded municipal work.

Labelling them “thugs”, city manager S’bu Sithole has already obtained a high court interdict against the group. But this has done little to deter them. Attorney Peter Barnard of Cox Yeats told The Mercury that eight of his clients had been “affected by this crowd”. Most, he said, were trying to “co-operate and co-exist” with the forum.

But Mechanicos said he was not prepared to do so.

More at:http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/firm-fights-tenders-mafia-2029155

 

[oldBastard]

Facebook page

 

[freddster]

and the first post there just shows their arrogance. And the fact that there is no law and order in this country.

 

[schumi]

Tender forum fights back

Durban - The Delangokubona Business Forum will oppose the finalisation of all interdicts granted against it and believes that a judge will rule in its favour.

“We are off to see our lawyers now,” spokesman Mthokozisi Mhlophe told journalists on Thursday.

Mhlophe, chairman Nathi Mnyandu and other members of the forum - which is accused of aggressively taking over construction sites, demanding jobs and some of the profits - gathered near the Springfield Park site where Elias Mechanicos Building is constructing a R140 million city fleet facility. After being told that the company had secured an interdict against them, they remained across the road, promising, however, that they would be back on another day.

The company, in its urgent high court application, alleged that 15 to 20 forum members stormed on to the site on Monday and demanded in-formation about the contract and a meeting with the management at 7.30am on Thursday.

As they left they said if their demands were not met - which included that 10% of the contract value be subcontracted to them - they would “shut the site down”. So far the forum has at least four interdicts against the forum, including one brought by eThekwini municipal manager S’bu Sithole, who has labelled the forum “thugs”.

But Mhlophe said they were simply trying to “enforce compliance with the law”.

“South Africa has a constitution and policies which dictate the way to participate in any project... including that emerging contractors should be given a certain stake.

More at:http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/tender-forum-fights-back-2030122

 

[LaraC]

/Snip

“South Africa has a constitution and policies which dictate the way to participate in any project... including that emerging contractors should be given a certain stake.

Who did they hire to interpret the Law and the letter?

Hopefully the judge dismiss their application with cost.

 

[daveza]

Of allegations of intimidation and aggression, Mhlophe said: “The mindset of a person can dictate if they feel threatened. We are a group of 15 or 18 and we are speaking to two people. Perhaps they feel intimidated...