The City’s refusal to disclose contract values of capital projects citing extortion-related concerns is an admission that its law enforcement agencies were losing the fight against the crime.

This is according to outraged opposition parties in council when reacting to the City’s refusal to disclose the amount taxpayers were to pay for the planned upgrade project at Muizenberg beachfront, which is expected to commence by mid-February 2025.

Deputy mayor and mayco member for spatial planning and environment, Eddie Andrews said due to “challenges with extortion, the City no longer provides the contract values of capital projects”.

“The main purpose of this project is to replace the old sea wall with a new revetment to protect the coastline and assets from the impact of climate change, amongst which are rising sea levels, more frequent storm surges, and related impacts,” said Andrews.

EFF Cape Metro chairperson Ntsikelelo Tyandela said the City cannot use extortion challenges as an “excuse to escape transparency and accountability”.

“By not disclosing the contract values of capital projects, the City is essentially hiding information from taxpayers about how their money is being spent.

This lack of transparency makes it difficult to ensure that money is being spent efficiently and effectively.

“Although the City shares this information with the council, it is important that this information is made publicly available to members of society because it is their money that is used for these projects.

“The City’s decision to withhold contract values due to extortion challenges suggests that the city is acknowledging that it is vulnerable to these types of crimes and has no contingency plan to deal with these.

“This admission raises concerns about the effectiveness of law enforcement in addressing extortion-related crimes and admission to being a failure to govern.”

GOOD Party council member Wesley Neumann said while they acknowledged that extortionists exist and create challenges by hindering service delivery, transparency and accountability were paramount.

“The City needs to clean out corruption in the Supply Chain Management, reviewing the tender system and the fair qualification process for businesses who apply.

“Our current law enforcement, especially the army of LEAP officers, were never designed to deal with matters of extortion. LEAP officers are basically traffic wardens who can assist traffic officers or metro police officers in operations. The bigger challenge we have is the failure of the City to identify the difference between extortion and disgruntled communities.

“This added level of secrecy will add to an already growing discontent with a lack of community engagement. Residents have a constitutional right to be part of developments affecting them,” said Neumann.

Neumann said as it stands, GOOD has already raised concerns over the secrecy surrounding oversight investigations.

“The municipal public accounts committee (MPAC) was established to play an oversight role in how public funds are spent by the executive. Essentially, MPAC acts in a similar capacity to that of the standing committee on public accounts at a national and provincial level. However, the one major difference is all Scopa meetings are open to public scrutiny.

But currently, the City’s MPAC, specifically task-team meetings where matters are investigated, are generally closed to the public,” he said.

ANC caucus leader Banele Majingo also shared the sentiments that the City’s approach may erode trust with citizens.

“The approach taken may raise concerns that could include potential for corruption and mismanagement of funds when contract values are not disclosed. The (City needs) to develop more effective strategies for addressing extortion and related crimes, rather than simply withholding information,” said Majingo.

Policy analyst and researcher Nkosikhulule Nyembezi said it was an unfortunate reality that crime and corruption have eroded South Africa’s ability as a nation to promote good governance, transparency and accountability.

“Lived experiences in our society have demonstrated that extortion is an impediment to development that cannot be eradicated through the criminal justice system alone.

Extortion and corruption affect us all, in terms of what we spend private and public money on, question and disclose, as well as how government makes public policy.

“But what we now know – with local and private investors avoiding public infrastructure projects and the recently published escalating project costs on security and facilitation fees – is that despite all the hype about police killing of criminals in extortion gangs, violence by criminals is more than a damp squib.

It shows, indeed, that fine words butter no parsnips and the auditor general is our last hope for holding the government accountable under the circumstances.”

Cape Times