Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called on the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to investigate and eliminate alleged gang links from its central line contracts following an investigative report that claims a suspected gang boss infiltrated the multi-billion-rand reconstruction project.
An AmaBhungane investigation alleges that Ralph Stanfield used Prasa’s security chief to secure contracts for the Cape Town central line presidential reconstruction project. Companies linked to Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson allegedly positioned themselves as subcontractors, with Mzansi Securifire receiving approximately R600-million in central line contracts between 2022 and 2024.
The investigation claims that violent disruption of the central line project created pressure for security solutions, which Stanfield-linked companies then exploited.
Hill-Lewis said he is calling on Prasa to suspend implicated officials pending a full investigation, establish the total contract funding that flowed to gang-linked companies, and pursue blacklisting of those companies where applicable.
“The state must shut down all potential avenues of funding to gangsterism, and root out corrupt officials working with the underworld. In this way, we will cut off key funding streams to gang bosses and reduce the scope for organised crime in our city,” Hill-Lewis said.
He noted that the City had successfully secured the national blacklisting of over a dozen gang-linked companies following its own investigations.
The report also alleges involvement by a senior South African Police Service official in pressuring contractors to onboard gang-linked subcontractors.
On 6 September 2022, Bishop Lavis’s then-acting police station commissioner allegedly emailed crime intelligence officers, Prasa executives, and a main central line contractor, inviting them to meet the following day at Manenberg Police Station to discuss security issues.
According to AmaBhungane, Prasa’s contractor was introduced at this meeting to representatives of two security companies linked to Stanfield – GParm Protection Services and PPE Security and Projects – as well as Yibaninati, founded by Johnson. They were told these companies would help resolve the security situation.
Hill-Lewis called on the SAPS provincial commissioner to initiate a full investigation into the circumstances of the meeting.
“The implications of gang infiltration into SAPS are simply too serious to ignore,” he said, noting that several people present, including Prasa officials and the contractor, could account for the events of that day.
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The report alleges that Prasa’s security chief actively promoted Stanfield-linked companies despite contractor resistance, seemingly attempting to adjust main contracts to allow subcontracting to these security providers.
On 20 September 2022, Prasa’s Western Cape lead programme manager reportedly emailed central line contractors indicating he had raised their concerns with Prasa chief executive Hisham Emeran, who asked contractors to inform Prasa in writing about their “reservations around the onboarding of the identified SMMEs and the facilitators”.
Hill-Lewis said Emeran should explain these comments and whether he knew of the alleged gang links.
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