Housing projects for nearly 19,000 beneficiaries from impoverished communities in the Western Cape have been halted because of extortion, ongoing threats and violence, including the murder of a City of Cape Town official at one of these sites.She was to have inspected the site, which will provide state-subsidised housing opportunities for more than 3,000 beneficiaries and their families in Blikkiesdorp, Freedom Park and Malawi Camp.
People at one of the spaza shops in Blikkiesdorp in Delft. 16 April 2024. visited residents in Blikkiesdorp, Malawi Camp and Freedom Park who had been waiting for their homes. They were too afraid to speak on the record for fear of reprisal attacks, claiming that “” were living among them who informed the extortionists about people who spoke to the media or the police.
“Members from the two gangs fighting for control over the Symphony Way Housing project have already warned us that anyone staying in the blocks controlled by , or part of the gang or whose family members belong to that gang will not be allowed to move into Symphony Way housing,” she toldIn Malawi Camp, a 70-year-old grandmother said she had been on the waiting list for more than 30 years and wondered whether she would still be alive when the Symphony Way housing project was completed.
“Robust internal control interventions are proposed to reduce the impact of extortion on city projects. This includes placing any individuals assessed as high risk, who are connected to a specific tenderer, on the city’s Red List; and revoking awarded contracts, including those that are linked via subcontracting to a high-risk main tenderer, once reputational risk and harm are exposed.
Blue Downs and Forest Village, where urgent interdicts were obtained against extortionists in 2021 and security provisions on site increased. Construction at both sites has resumed.
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