‘Gangsters were hired’

Manenberg, which fuelled gang warfare in the already volatile area.

If the allegations that a city-contracted construction company or companies paid gangsters for security are found to be true, the city, on a mayoral committee member’s admission, could be implicated in contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

Weekend Argus is in possession of leaked copies of e-mails and minutes of a meeting that show that, despite knowing about the matter in December, the city is still, months later, deciding how to address it.

This week police said they had received complaints from Manenberg residents about the matter, but that no formal statements had been made.

In a leaked e-mail from safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith to other city officials, dated December 12, Smith said: “The city needs to hand over all the information they have to SAPS around the paying of gangsters by city-contracted housing contractors working on the CRU (Community Residential Units). This is a criminal offence in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and other legislation, and needs to be criminally prosecuted.

“The city is implicated in this, and we need to make a formal submission to SAPS with all the information we have.”

Smith, in the e-mail, said he had suggested the human settlements department ask the contractors to put in writing what they knew.

He also asked the Metro Police to take the submissions to the police, “so the city has fully disclosed what we know”.

Asked to comment, Smith con-firmed to Weekend Argus he had sent the e-mails, adding that he was trying to alert his colleagues to a housing issue.

This week, various sources told Weekend Argus recent flare-ups in gang violence in Manenberg were rooted in the employment of rival gang members for security by construction companies which were upgrading council flats.

Late last year, this had fuelled fighting between gangs, unhappy with their rivals taking over construction sites, and last week the already tense situation was exacerbated when a hit was put out on an Americans gangster, and his allies then retaliated.

Residents reported that machine guns were used in the fighting.

In a terse response to a list of questions from Weekend Argus about the contractors paying gangsters, the city’s mayoral committee member for human settlements, Benedicta van Minnen, said only: “The city can confirm that an investigation is under way, and the necessary actions will be taken once the outcome of the investigation has been confirmed.”

But details of what has been happening are contained in the leaked e-mails.

In an earlier e-mail from Smith, dated December 2, he said a meeting needed to be set up with the head of one of the construction companies “and the contractors working for human settlements in Manenberg about the protection money being demanded by the Hard Livings, and being paid by one of the contractors”.

Minutes from a meeting between city officials dealing with the Community Residential Units upgrades, held on February 6, were also leaked to Weekend Argus.

The minutes show that a senior safety and security official had attended.

It mentions a “dossier of alleged contraventions” involving Manenberg, and says a Metro Police head advised that a charge should not be lodged at the Manenberg police station, but that a complaint should instead be made to a senior police officer.

But the senior official advised the issue be placed instead on the agenda for when mayor Patricia de Lille had her next monthly meeting with provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer.

De Lille was then meant to hand over the dossier for Lamoer to investigate at a provincial level.

This week, Lamoer said he did not know about the dossier, and provincial police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said they had not received any such dossier.

De Lille’s spokeswoman Zara Nicholson said the matter was being dealt with “by the relevant authorities”.

On Saturday, police General Jeremy Vearey, who heads up Operation Combat, the provincial police’s operation targeting gangsterism, said some Manenberg residents had complained about construction companies paying gangsters.

“But none of these reports have resulted in statements,” he said.

Vearey said if the allegations and suggestions were found to be true, it could result in charges of racketeering and corruption being investigated.

This week, Raziek Rajah of Good Hope Construction, a company working in Manenberg and which was named in one of Smith’s e-mails, told Weekend Argus that late last year its security providers were checked by police.

Rajah said his company hired employees from a City of Cape Town database that did not specify who was or was not a criminal.

- Weekend Argus