Security boost for Cape Town city manager after blacklisting of company owned by 28s gang case-accused

The City of Cape Town has taken a precautionary approach and enhanced the security detail of its manager, Lungelo Mbandazayo. This follows the successful blacklisting of Glomix, a construction company owned by Nicole Johnson, a crime accused and the wife of suspected 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield.

Daily Maverick has reported extensively on matters involving the couple, including that Johnson’s company, Glomix House Brokers, has been involved in housing projects in Cape Town, worth millions of rands, for more than a decade.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Company previously flagged over ‘28s gang’ suspicions still building houses for Western Cape government

Johnson is the director of Glomix, which was awarded housing tenders after 2014 when she and Stanfield were first arrested and faced criminal charges.

The couple were arrested again, along with three others, in September 2024 in another case, related to car theft and fraud, for which they remain in custody.

Investigation

Mbandazayo initiated an investigation into companies doing business with the municipality following the murder of City of Cape Town official Wendy Kloppers, who was gunned down in Delft, at the Symphony Way Housing Project building site, on 16 February 2023.

Mbandazayo previously said Kloppers was killed after the City refused to give in to the demands of gangsters demanding work from contractors at the housing project. 

It was after this investigation that several companies owned by Johnson were blacklisted by the municipality. 

Read more on Daily Maverick: Risky business — City of Cape Town blacklists companies linked to 28s gang case accused Nicole Johnson

It did not end there. Mbandazayo successfully petitioned the national government to take the same action after discovering that Glomix had submitted fraudulent B-BBEE certificates. 

According to a Treasury document, headed “Restricted Supplier and Tender Defaulter Report”, Glomix was blacklisted on 28 March 2024. This was to remain in effect for a decade until 27 March 2034.

The reason for the restriction read: “Submission of fraudulent B-BBEE Certificate.”

According to the Treasury document, the “City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality” authorised the blocking. 

Security upgrade

In October 2023 it emerged in court that Stanfield wanted his henchmen to find an individual who went into hiding because he feared Stanfield would kill him. The court in Cape Town heard that someone targeted the same individual at a shooting a month before the case was heard in court. He remains in hiding for safety reasons.

Read more on Daily Maverick: ‘I want to empty a gun in his head’ – chilling affidavit about alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield’s ‘plans’

Sources in the municipality say Mbandazayo now has a convoy that includes bikes, SUVs and law enforcement officers. He also wears a bulletproof vest and his armed security also carries rifles. 

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith confirmed to Daily Maverick that the City’s VIP unit added more security for the city manager recently. 

“You see who he is messing with,” Smith told Daily Maverick. “The anticipation is that [this] kind of action does not come without consequences. This is not something we can take lightly, and the ability to harm the city manager would send a powerful message to all the other officials that it is not advisable to take that kind of action.” 

Smith said the protection was based on a threat assessment and that no threats or harm had come to the city manager yet. He said it was to be expected that the blacklisting of a company linked to an alleged underworld figure would created a huge provocation. 

“He (Mbandazayo) is causing a major aggravation to the persons whose companies are being blacklisted and if he succeeds, which he is, it will embolden local authorities to act similarly and that must be a cause of concern for these syndicates.” 

The City of Cape Town has largely driven the publicising of extortion rackets and the construction mafia by speaking out about it and even launching an extortion hotline. 

Smith said the actions taken by the City in the fight against extortion syndicates and construction mafias would inspire other municipalities, such as Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, to also implement measures to combat the syndicates. 

A recent report by News24 said construction projects in Gauteng, worth nearly R2-billion, are under threat as construction mafias, once centred on KwaZulu-Natal, proliferate throughout the country.

ANC leader in the Cape Town caucus Banele Majingo emphasised the importance of ensuring the safety and security of all City of Cape Town employees. 

“It is within the competency of the South African Police Service to make a security assessment of the city manager and all City of Cape Town employees,” he said.

“If the SAPS, after careful consideration, determines that the safety measures for the security of the city manager must be enhanced, we believe that this determination is welcome. Furthermore, we believe the safety measures will not have much financial implications for the municipality.”

Good party secretary-general Bret Herron said it was shocking that the city manager now had a convoy of security at ratepayers’ expense. 

“The DA is vehemently opposed, in words and clearly not action, to blue lights and security convoys,” he said. 

“How is it possible that from 2018, with Patricia de Lille as mayor, to today the city manager has gone from driving himself in his own car to now enjoying a massive security convoy equivalent to the excessive security some ANC executives enjoy?” 

Herron said De Lille had neither a convoy nor an army of bodyguards, mayoral committee members drove their cars to the Civic Centre every day, and the city manager had no driver or security.

“At recent events, we’ve witnessed excessive security for mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis too. The City should come clean on what vehicles and security are being provided to politicians and officials. It’s increasingly obvious that the DA-run cities are no different to the ANC-run cities when it comes to big man syndrome.” DM