Cape Town - The ANC has reiterated that the government is setting up specialised units that will deal with construction mafia, illegal mining and destruction of infrastructure at Eskom, Prasa and other institutions.
ANC head of economic transformation Mmamoloko Kubayi said the destruction of infrastructure in the country was a serious concern.
The ruling party was also concerned about disruption of businesses by construction mafia on sites.
Efforts were made as Transnet, Eskom and Prasa continue to lose billions of rand a year to economic sabotage as its infrastructure is destroyed by syndicates who want copper cable.
Kubayi said this was no longer a petty crime, but economic sabotage as it impacts on the economy of the country.
The government was setting up specialised units to deal with these crimes.
Kubayi, who was addressing the Progressive Business Forum, said Ministers in the Security Cluster were handling these issues.
“There is the issue for us to look at the scrap metal and deal decisively with that because it causes damage. Part of what we are not seeing is enforcement, we are having conversations with our colleagues in the security cluster on enforcement because this is sabotage that impacts on the economy.
“When somebody steals copper cables, when somebody removes the rail track it should not be regarded as a petty crime. The conversations we have been having with the security cluster, for example, is that the crime in terms of illegal mining there is a new task force that has been formed that is dealing with illegal mining.
“Secondly, what the security cluster is looking at is the protection of businesses. There are areas where you find construction mafia disrupting businesses. They have agreed in terms of the task force,” Kubayi said.
She said these issues were being implemented to curb these criminal networks and syndicates.
Kubayi said the destruction of the rail network was also a problem. This was attended to by the government.
Political Bureau