23/08/2017: Residents of Joburg West losing their homes to property hijackers
I was deeply moved this morning when I received reports that honest law abiding residents of the City are being bullied and are at risk of being evicted from their homes as a result of the actions of criminal elements in the community of Windsor East.
Reports this morning claim that the hijacking of properties has spread to Joburg’s northern suburbs where families occupying between 20 and 30 blocks of flats within Windsor East and individual sectional title units are reported to have been hijacked.
A local councillor in the area, Cllr Weweje, alleges that the hijacking of properties started in June when tenants were told by hijackers to pay their rent to them and not to the rightful owners.
Hijacked buildings are a major problem in our City, with our people living in deplorable conditions and being abused by slumlords who extort money from them. To date, the City has received 110 reported cases of hijacked buildings, all of which are under various stages of investigation.
Since taking office, addressing the need for housing has been one of my top priorities. However, the City has a backlog off 300 000 housing units and extremely limited resources for addressing that challenge.
In this context, we cannot allow our poorest residents to be stripped of the roofs over their heads by criminal elements and rendered homeless. To do so would be to fail in our duty to protect the rule of law within our City.
There has been a historic failure in our City to deal with hijacked buildings. We are committed to ensuring that we stop the rot and make Johannesburg a prosperous and inclusive place for our people to live work and play.
To this effect, I have instructed the City’s legal team to investigate these allegations, provide a report on the matter and advise on how to proactively begin addressing this problem – this includes investigating how the revitalisation of Municipal Courts can be utilised to enforce land use by-laws within communities.
Our Group Forensic team is also committed to intensifying raids in these communities to profile the size of the problem. To date, the work of this team as ensured the arrest of 5 slum lords in the inner city.
We cannot allow any criminal activity to undermine the dignity and rights of our residents.
I will continue to do all within my power to ensure that the rule of law is respected and that our poorest communities are cared for.
Cllr Herman Mashaba
Executive Mayor
City of Johannesburg
For further information, please contact:
Luyanda Mfeka
Acting Director of Mayoral Communications
Office of the Executive Mayor
City of Johannesburg
Tel: 011 407 6727
Cellular: 076 171 5978
Email: luyandam@joburg.org.za"> luyandam@joburg.org.za
