A LOCAL businessman has slammed the tactics of a business forum that allegedly brandished weapons and stopped workers from laying fibre optic cables in Glen Anil on Tuesday morning. The forum is well-known for targeting construction sites around the province demanding jobs. According to the owner of the business (he did not want to name his business for fear of reprisals), Ashley Aitken, the men intimidated staff and told them not to come back to the area.
Aitken said one of his employees had opened a case of intimidation at the Greenwood Park police station.
“This is totally ridiculous. This is the second day in a row they’ve disrupted my employees. We’ve lost a significant amount of time in terms of completing deadlines. In Glen Anil street alone, we’ve been set back by almost two weeks. We were supposed to have been finished by Friday. The safety of my staff is paramount and they feared for their lives today and left the site. We are about 80 per cent complete. I cannot understand how this type of behaviour is allowed to continue,” Aitken said.
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His comments were echoed by ward 110 councillor, Pete Graham who had this to say:
Last year the business forums stopped several projects of the Roads and Stormwater Department in the CBD, now it seems they have a dispute with the eThekwini Traffic Authority (ETA).
There have been a spate of incidents of intimidation and violence against contractors on various sites including uMhlanga and Sibaya since the beginning of January.
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