Construction mafia shuts down road projects in South Africa’s richest city

Several infrastructure projects in Johannesburg have been disrupted by criminal organizations using violence and intimidation tactics.

The issue has become so widespread that ward councillors around the metro have warned that parts of the regions have effectively become ungovernable.

Former ward councillor Lucinda Harman recently spoke on 702 about her experiences, which ultimately led to her resignation.

One of the most concerning aspects she highlighted was how dangerous the job has become, as ward councilors have been murdered for standing up to these criminals.

Harman said she was shocked that the media has not caught on to how many councillors have been murdered, as attending memorial sessions has become an all too frequent occurrence.

The city has become so poorly managed, and governance has deteriorated so badly that threats to councillors’ lives are ignored.

“Everything just falls on deaf ears, nobody’s prepared to take action because everything’s just collapsing around,” she said.

Having been on the receiving end of these threats multiple times, Harman decided to resign after the role started to take a serious toll on her mental and physical health, even spending two weeks in the hospital.

“It became impossible to do my work as a ward councillor. I was tired of intimidation, I was tired of the dysfunctionality, and these threats that go on and on and on,” she said. 

She noted that the biggest danger is the construction mafia – a term referring to criminal syndicates that intimidate workers at infrastructure projects in order to claim “protection money.”

“Wherever there are projects, you’ve got the biggest risk of a councillor being murdered,” she said.

Harman’s ward included Bryanston, Willow Wild, Randburg CBD, and Blairgowrie – the latter two of which are the worst affected.

“If there are projects in an area, that councillor is the one at risk of being murdered, and it’s the construction mafia behind all of it.”

She added that “hostile political parties are in on the scheme” and are exacerbating the issue.

A known issue

Harman said that, despite sounding the alarm about the construction mafia several times, she was met with silence.

Even a full council meeting on the safety of councillors produced no results.

“On the phone, I’ve been told a number of times to watch your back, we’re coming for you if you don’t get the projects our way, if you don’t bend to our rules, then you better be careful.”

She said that these calls always come at moments when she can’t record them, but that she knows exactly who the perpetrators are.

“Local police refused to help me. I ended up going to provincial police, and they were meant to refer me to the Hawks, which never happened,” she said.

“I don’t think anyone’s taking it seriously… everyone just thinks we all must get on with our job and not rock the boat.”

Construction mafia shuts down R550 million road project

One of the most high-profile incidents of 2025 occurred in June, when it was revealed a construction mafia had brought a R550-million project to a halt.

The tender, which is worth R548,612,770, was awarded to LoneRock in early 2025 to revamp the Golden Highway bridge, which connects Johannesburg to Vanderbijlpark.

However, its employees were shot and physically assaulted, forcing the company to pause construction.

Director Godfrey Mokabane claimed that the local taxi organisations had demanded money from LoneRock following its tender appointment.

He told the Pretoria High Court that he had met with local business members, taxi associations, politicians, and organisations that all wanted a cut of the rehabilitation project’s funds.

In a previous meeting with Gauteng Transport MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela and taxi associations, the Department of Transport suggested that LoneRock should rely on the taxis for transport for its workers.

However, LoneRock refused to accept this proposal.

When work on the site commenced, the company was approached by taxi operators demanding “the first month’s payment” and said  that they would get this money “whether their services were being utilized or not.”

This issue is not unique to Johannesburg, as other metros like the City of Cape Town have experienced similar issues with construction mafias.