Durban building site shut down after workers assaulted

A site where a R120 million Durban city fleet facility is being built has been shut down after construction workers were assaulted on Saturday.

Lawyer Richard Hoal of Cox Yeats which represents the construction company Elias Mechanicos Building Civil Engineering said members of the local community broke into the Springfield Park site at 3am and attempted to set fire to the plant and equipment.

“They then threatened and assaulted some of the employees on site and shut the site down. No work can continue this weekend‚” he said.

After the incident‚ lawyers immediately prepared an affidavit to interdict further unlawful action.

Early in the week‚ the construction company secured an urgent high court interdict to fend off a threatened take-over of the construction site on Thursday.

Elias Mechanicos‚ the owner of the construction company‚ had to hire armed guards in the wake of the threats by the Delangokubona Business Forum which has been visiting construction sites around KwaZulu-Natal demanding jobs and a slice in the profits.

The business forum‚ based in Umlazi‚ south of Durban‚ has been targeting businesses and disrupting municipal services for the past two months because‚ it alleges‚ its members are not being awarded municipal work.

City manager S’bu Sithole‚ who labelled them “thugs”‚ has already obtained a high court interdict against the forum but this has not deterred them.

The Springfield site has already been shut down this year for eight weeks because of a protest by the local community but work resumed recently after the dispute was resolved. But on Monday afternoon a group of about 20 men — claiming to be from the Delangokubona Business Forum — forced their way through the main gate‚ frog-marched the security guard to the main office and demanded to see management.

They demanded that 10% of the contract value be subcontracted to them and threatened to come back and shut down the site on Thursday if their demands were not met. But Mduduzi “Gaddafi” Sibiya of the Delangokubona Business Forum said they were not part of Saturday’s incident‚ which he blamed on in-fighting between community members.

“We wanted to assist the community but there is too much infighting among them. So we decided to back off. We usually assist communities in situations like this but we’re no longer helping them because of infighting‚” he said.

On Friday Premier Willies Mchunu slammed Delangokubona‚ vowing to “crush" the organisation and saying that the government would work against any group that threatened investment in the province.

TMG Digital/Durban Bureau