Construction Mafia Has Johannesburg on Its Knees

Councillors warn the city is slipping into a violent, ungovernable storm

Johannesburg is no stranger to political turbulence, but behind the scenes, a darker force has been tightening its grip on the city’s most lucrative spaces. From Randburg to Bryanston, councillors are facing an escalating campaign of intimidation, threats, and outright violence. And for some, survival has become more important than service.

This week, former Ward 102 councillor Lucinda Harman became the latest public representative to walk away, saying the city has reached a point where “it’s too far gone.”

Her resignation, effective 30 November, has pulled back the curtain on a growing underworld influence many Joburg residents only hear about in fragments the rise of the construction mafia.

“We attend more memorials than meetings”

Harman’s account paints a chilling picture of life as a councillor in South Africa’s richest city. She describes memorial service after memorial service, colleagues killed, sometimes without headlines, sometimes without even a whisper from the public.

“It shocks me how the media hasn’t caught on to how many councillors are being murdered,” she said.

In Joburg’s political circles, this line has hit a nerve. On social media, community activists responded with anger, demanding to know why these deaths aren’t being tracked, reported, or investigated with the urgency they deserve.

How the construction mafia captured Joburg

Harman says the source of the most serious danger is clear: wherever there’s a municipal project, the mafia moves in.

“If there are projects in an area, that councillor becomes the one at risk of being murdered.”

In her ward, covering Randburg CBD, Bryanston, Willow Wild and Blairgowrie the hotspots were unmistakable. Once a project begins, councillors face pressure to bend, comply, or disappear.

Intimidation escalates fast:

• threats over the phone,

• pressure to award work to particular groups,

• warnings to “watch your back.”

Harman says she knows exactly who is behind the threats, but has found no one willing to act.

A city where complaints fall on deaf ears

Johannesburg’s governance structures have long been criticised for dysfunction, but Harman says things have now reached an entirely different level.

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

Even a full council meeting dedicated to councillor safety produced no tangible outcomes. The city’s protection policy, stuck in limbo since 2021, remains just that a policy, not a plan.

When the police don’t pick up the phone

The most alarming part of her story is not the threats, but the response when she sought help.

• Local police refused to assist.

• The matter was elevated to provincial level, but that, too, went nowhere.

• A supposed referral to the Hawks never happened.

This is not unusual. For years, Joburg residents have complained that the intersection of politics, construction tenders and organised crime is a law enforcement blind spot.

It is now costing lives.

Councillors working unprotected

Stepping down means Harman loses the limited protection councillors are meant to have. But she says she never felt protected anyway.

“I don’t think anyone’s taking it seriously,” she added. “Everyone thinks we must just get on with the job and not rock the boat.”

This frustration is echoed widely online, where residents argue that councillors are being placed in the line of fire without the tools or security needed to perform their duties.

A city at breaking point

Harman says she had been raising warnings since April, long before her health deteriorated to the point where she required hospitalisation for two weeks.

The city ignored them, she says.

Now, she fears it may take more deaths before the threat is acknowledged.

“It’s too far gone,” she says quietly.
“I fear more councillors will die before the authorities take this seriously.”

What this means for Joburg

Political analysts warn that when councillors, the closest link between communities and government are forced out by threats, the city begins to slip into ungovernability.
This is already visible in:

• stalled infrastructure projects,

• criminal capture of development sites,

• informal extortion groups operating with impunity,

• and the hollowing out of municipal oversight.

Johannesburg, long celebrated as the country’s economic engine, now risks sliding into a model seen in parts of Limpopo and KZN, where organised crime structures operate parallel to local government.

And unless something changes, residents may soon find the people who are supposed to fight for them have either fled, fallen silent, or been buried.

{Source: Business Tech}

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