Cape Town commits to new housing developments despite construction mafia threats

Western Cape Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers says extortion is having a detrimental effect on the provision of housing for those in need. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

By Suné Payne

11 Mar 2025

‘Absolutely paramount’ is how City of Cape Town human settlements MMC Carl Pophaim describes the importance of the Symphony Way housing project in Delft. The project has restarted almost two years after a city worker was murdered at the site. Threats – now against Pophaim – have again emerged.

City of Cape Town human settlements mayoral committee member (MMC) Carl Pophaim says despite the possibility of facing violence and extortion, a promise has been made to “stand firm” against those who want to see the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) Symphony Way housing project fail.

The project, in Delft, Cape Town, near Cape Town International Airport, could yield 3,469 housing opportunities for those living in three informal settlement communities — Malawi Camp, Freedom Farm and Blikkiesdorp.

The settlements are on land belonging to Acsa, and once completed, would allow for the realignment of the existing runway and ultimately the development of a second, parallel runway.

On 16 February 2023, while at the site, city official Wendy Kloppers was gunned down. This exposed long-running allegations of extortion within the city’s construction sector.

Security risks led to the shutdown of the construction site. This week, two years after Kloppers was killed, work was restarted.

While the city and residents celebrate the move, Pophaim said he was warned against Monday’s relaunching of the project.

Pophaim spoke to Daily Maverick on Tuesday, 11 March, on the sidelines of a meeting between national Human Settlements Minister Tembi Simelane, provincial housing MECs and city housing officials.

“Well, you know, I’m hesitant to share details or specifics because of the current criminal investigation, as well as the ongoing threat management and assistance,” he said.

‘Threatened’

“But the reality is, over the past four months, I’ve received different forms of communication where I was directly threatened.”

He was referring not only to Symphony Way, but another housing development in the city.

He said this was “certainly a misguided threat” aimed at cancelling tender awards which had already been allocated.

Pophaim said he was told, “Should I fail to do so, I’ll be taken out and as I’ve said, this didn’t happen immediately yesterday, it’s been coming on for a while.”

Pophaim said, “The wheels of productivity must continue and there are just too many people that are dependent on the work that we do.”

While there is excitement over the future, Pophaim said: “I think this is critical, I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow, I don’t know what’s gonna happen next month, we could face extreme violence and extortion in the coming weeks.”

When asked about the importance of the site for city housing, Pophaim said it was “absolutely paramount”.

The project is expected to benefit residents of Blikkiesdorp, Freedom Farm and Malawi Camp. The clearing of the settlements would allow for the airport expansion and would “see more commercial development taking place, which ultimately brings job opportunities and economic development for the broader Delft, Belhar and Elsies River community”.

Pophaim added: “A lot has been riding in the last 18 months on the Symphony Way project,” including the appointment of a new contractor and the provision of security at the site.

According to Pophaim, there had originally been a budget of R460-million for the project, but this was now estimated at half a billion rands to allow for added security measures.

The project consists of Site A and Site B – the estimated completion date for Site A is the second half of 2028.

Read more: City of Cape Town to restart massive housing project stalled by extortion and murder

Western Cape Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers says extortion is having a detrimental effect on the provision of housing for those in need. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

In a reply on 7 February to a question in the provincial legislature to Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Anroux Marais, it was revealed that while there were 505 cases related to extortion and 26 related to the construction mafia in the Western Cape, there had been only one conviction.

It’s not only Human Settlements that faces extortion threats. Western Cape MEC for Infrastructure Tertuis Simmers told Daily Maverick other projects had been stalled.

“Some are primary schools that were earmarked for upgrading which have been stalled for the last six months… We have seen the upgrading of a clinic facility, again in the city jurisdiction, which has now stood still for almost a year because of extortion.

“When the contractor gets to site, obviously they are met with those so-called community forums who demand certain things, X number of jobs, X number of safety fees per week.”

There were three other settlement projects where the province has had to use private security “in terms of monitoring and tactical teams to ensure that construction can continue and to ensure that there are no invasion or invasion attempts on these sites”, said Simmers.

The impact, he said, was reallocation of budgets for either serviced sites or top structures “to pay for security at the end of the day”.

Read more: Parliament mulls changing law to obtain more convictions for extortionists

When Daily Maverick asked Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane what she was discussing with the justice and security cluster over extortion in the human settlements sector, she replied, “Sometimes it’s community protests, sometimes it’s the very same community members who come and extort our contractors.”

The justice cluster was collaborating on “all projects to be prioritised”, she said. DM

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‘Threatened’