ANGELA RIVERS: Call for action against property hijackers in Johannesburg

One of the most insidious and murky issues that face those who own and manage property in Johannesburg, is the hijacking of buildings by crime syndicates, and the enormously negative effect that has on the surrounding neighbourhoods.

As representative of most of the landlords in Joburg’s inner city, the Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association (JPOMA) comes face to face with the reality of property hijacking on a weekly basis as members seek help to protect their tenants and businesses.

The city’s group forensic and investigation services confirmed on eNCA’s The Devi Show that more than 1,000 properties were currently hijacked. Yet the kingpins behind the crimes had proven largely untouchable, as any efforts to bring them to justice tend to come to a dead end.

A former head of the provincial task team on house hijackings told eNCA’s Devi Govender that the multimillion-rand racket was aided and abetted by corrupt officials along the chain of authority, from police and lawyers to deeds office officials and municipal personnel.

There are criminals who have been getting away with this for a decade or more, featuring in media report after media report as they undermine the law and conduct a reign of terror, with minimal if any interference from the authorities.

How does it happen that a building gets hijacked? Many such properties belong to local and national government, and in these cases the problem starts with poor management. Adding to the many deficiencies in the administration of Johannesburg, hundreds of buildings in the city are largely unmanaged, which opens a gap for opportunistic syndicates to swarm in and intimidate sitting tenants with brute force, piling in their own tenants to the point of dangerous overcrowding, creating a slum where the only rule that applies is keeping the slumlord’s palm greased.

Services are terminated as there is no payment of municipal rates or any maintenance undertaken, and soon the building is not only a broken-window eyesore, but a crime-infested headache for any well-run buildings surrounding it.

In the case of private buildings that are hijacked, a property owner might find that their tenants suddenly stop paying rent, and upon investigation learn that the rents are in fact being collected by a crime syndicate, which uses intimidation tactics and threats of violence to enforce its own crooked laws. Efforts by the owner to reclaim possession of the property and evict illegal tenants are often met by threats, and when they follow the legal route their lawyers bump up against lost files, cases mysteriously disappearing off the court roll, and myriad obfuscation techniques that leave the problem ultimately unsolved.

In the meantime, the hijacked building deteriorates for all the reasons mentioned above, with the property often ending up hopelessly damaged to the point of being uninhabitable.

Adjoining buildings suffer as tenancies drop, and in the case of one JPOMA member’s building in Berea, the landlord is unable to rent out any of the flats on the side of his apartment block that faces the hijacked city-owned building alongside, where gunshots have been fired from the windows. Criminal behaviour, including public drinking, drug dealing and muggings, are rife in the street around the property, and despite its best efforts the responsible landlord cannot guarantee its tenants’ safety.

Group Forensic & Investigation Services and the city’s own Problem Buildings Task Team throw up their hands in despair, when asked the police claim the case is “under investigation”, and meanwhile the problems mount. Task team meetings are poorly attended and unfocused. It is virtually impossible to pinpoint where the rot starts and how far the corruption spreads, but the end result is that the city loses out on income, as do responsible rate-paying citizens, while the corrupt and criminals feed at the trough.

How can this pernicious problem be solved? Having been closely involved with many of these cases we know hijacked buildings require a more complex approach than merely serving eviction notices. Our informal research suggests that these are sophisticated criminal syndicates that make staggering amounts of money and are well supported by corrupt officials who turn a blind eye in exchange for bribes.

We believe these instances need to be treated as serious crimes, to break up any syndicates before any other action can be considered. Partnerships with the private sector could also be useful to expedite eviction orders and the supply of alternative accommodation. 

What we need is significant pressure from the police to carry out frequents raids; proper investigations by well-resourced authorities at a national level; and the redevelopment of these affected buildings and the provision of alternative accommodation to the tenants of these buildings who would ultimately suffer most if displaced.

We call on the City of Johannesburg to prioritise this pressing issue and ensure all of the strategic stakeholders are co-ordinated into a well-planned outcomes-based strategy, to be implemented as soon as possible. This team should at minimum include the city’s Citizen Relationship and Urban Management agency, the departments of housing and development planning, the Johannesburg Property Company and the Inner City Resource Centre, and be driven by an accountable city.

JPOMA members are committed to the future of Johannesburg and its 6-million people, and with a seat at this table are keen to collaborate towards achieving this goal, for the sake of all of our tenants.

• Rivers is GM of the  Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association (JPOMA).