“You can apply for tenders all you want,” said Thobani Ndlovu, “it’s not up to you whether you get them.” That was the blunt version of the tender system offered by the Durban architect and TEDx Durban curator, speaking on The Load Shed Podcast. The conversation wandered from estates and running clubs to public speaking, but the stretch on the “construction mafia” is the part worth a business owner’s time. It is one person’s account, offered casually, and it needs to be read that way. Where he cited facts, we checked them.
A rule meant to be a good thing
The hosts raised the subject, asking how a builder deals with groups that arrive mid-project and demand 30 per cent. Ndlovu, an architect whose firm has moved into construction, began with the origin story as he understands it. “I love the fact that you mentioned the 30%,” he said, describing it as “something that was supposed to be a good thing”. His reasoning: a project dropped into a community by outsiders who then leave tends to be poorly received, so government wanted local people involved in the build, through subcontracts for things like windows, tiling or painting, capped at 30 per cent.
The regulation he is gesturing at exists, though it reads a little differently. Under the Preferential Procurement Regulations, as summarised by VDT Attorneys, organs of state must apply subcontracting to tenders above R30 million where feasible, and at least 30 per cent of the contract value must go to designated groups such as small enterprises, mostly black-owned firms and cooperatives, picked from lists of registered suppliers. That is a set-aside for registered small businesses. As summarised there, it does not give any group of people in a neighbourhood a claim on a share of the money. The gap between the two readings is where the trouble starts.
Where he says it goes wrong
Ndlovu’s account of the breakdown is that some people want the percentage without the work. “They just want to take the 30% without actually doing work in the project,” he said, adding that once they have received some payments they stop. The contractor, meanwhile, holds the contract and the duty to finish. He said tender documents require a declaration of the percentage the main contractor will give to the community and the work it will cover, but that some people “actually come into the project armed” and stop the site.
The wider picture is better documented. Reporting by EWN on 7 July 2026 quoted Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson telling a Parliament briefing of at least 770 reported cases, 241 arrests and 176 convictions. The sector estimates that 180 public infrastructure projects worth R63 billion were delayed by extortion, intimidation or violence before the intervention. KwaZulu-Natal, where Ndlovu works, was described as a hotspot, with monthly site disruptions falling from an average of 60 to fewer than 10. In other words, what Ndlovu described is treated as a criminal matter by the state, not as a quirk of subcontracting.
School fees and the stereotype
Ndlovu and the hosts also spent time on the reputation of tender work. One host admitted that “tenderpreneur” brings a man in Gucci to mind. Ndlovu pushed back: tenders are not the problem, he said, people are, and private clients also run tenders, some of which his firm has won and delivered.
On government work he was frank, and again this is his opinion and experience, not a finding. Even a tender won fairly, he suggested, can mean paying a string of people along the way, which one of the hosts called “school fees”. We have no evidence to test that claim, and he named no one. What it does capture is a widespread perception among small operators that the cost of getting paid is a hidden line in every budget.
Starting private, and the grade ladder
His practical advice was modest. Register a company, attend workshops on the paperwork, because “the documentation is the most important thing”, and start in what he called the “private space”, by asking someone with a build in mind to give you a chance, so that you have a track record when you go for public tenders. He added, fairly, that this is “how it’s supposed to work but sometimes that’s not how it works”.
He also raised the grading system, which is real. The Construction Industry Development Board register grades contractors from 1 to 9 by financial and works capability. A Grade 6 contractor may tender up to R20 million, Grade 7 up to R60 million, Grade 8 up to R200 million, and Grade 9 has no upper limit, so a tender restricted to Grade 9 firms shuts out everyone below. Ndlovu said that is how the small players get shut out, but that smaller firms can subcontract to the big ones and “you can get your grade up”. For the mechanics of registering and bidding, see our guide to government tenders for small businesses and to registering a company.
Ndlovu offered no data and made no accusations against named parties, and the conversation was casual. But his central point survives the caveats, and the minister’s figures back the wider claim: a rule written to spread work around can be turned into a toll, and the people who pay it are contractors who never asked for the job to be a hostage.
