Addressing the construction mafia needs more than condemnation; it requires strong action to discourage violence and intimidation. Neither the private sector nor the state, particularly the latter, should tolerate criminal activities. A lack of proper leadership has emboldened the construction mafia in South Africa. Effective leadership, beginning with the cabinet and police commissioner, is vital. It's unrealistic to expect lower-level officials to face risks while their superiors are disconnected or complicit.
Terence Corrigan draws us to a possible model for a response to the Construction Mafia, this model is to be found in Palermo in Sicily over the past four decades. Palermo was a center of the original mafia, the Cosa Nostra, a criminal society whose reach extended into politics and business. Even more so that South Africa’s construction mafia was able to influence business and state contracts, so much so that it altered the character of Palermo, having historic buildings ripped down so that formless tenements could be constructed with the mafia taking a sizeable cut.
Through this model Terence Corrigan concludes that the biggest lesson for South Africa to learn is that even though no two sets of circumstances would be identical .The solution to the Construction Mafia is a whole-of-state and whole-of-society initiative. Therefore it needs to be far more than a pro forma denunciation of the construction mafia; it needs to be combated so that the costs to those perpetrating violence and intimidation become daunting, and the consequences become imminent.
For that, neither the private sector nor the state – indeed, particularly not the state – should countenance the criminality involved. Doing so only encouraged it in Palermo, and it has done likewise in South Africa (not only in respect of construction, think about the taxi industry). Proper leadership, from the cabinet and police commissioner on down, is essential. A clerk in a municipal planning office or a constable on the beat cannot be expected to face the dangers if their superiors are disengaged or complicit.
This will have no chance of success unless the institutions tasked with facing this threat are themselves strong and resilient. Committed, meritocratic, skilled and honest. Needless to say, political and racial appointments have no place here.
Finally, the broader community needs to understand the threat to their own wellbeing and their prospects that the construction mafia and its imitators pose. Where people feel hopeless and frustrated, this may be a tough point to make – tougher still where young people can find a sense of authority and a rudimentary income by providing muscle to these operations.
Unfortunately, a progression of bad choices and destructive ideology has created fertile ground for organized crime – and some in the country’s elite have been enthusiastic enablers and participants in that phenomenon. The longer this entrenches itself, the more resilient it will be to any efforts to dislodge it. Not only the construction industry will pay a steep price for this.
The full review by Terrence Corrigan who is the Project Manager at the Institute, where he specialises in work on property rights, as well as land and mining policy. was published on Biznews
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