City of Joburg's Crackdown on Hijacked Buildings Leads to Arrest of Councillor and 23 Others, Mzansi Furious

• Police have arrested 24 individuals connected to the hijacking of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) building
• The suspects include a councillor in the City of Johannesburg, with suspicion a police officer is involved
• South Africans are disheartened that a government official is behind the criminality

JOHANNESBURG - The police have arrested 24 people behind the hijacking of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) building in the Central Business District (CBD).

The suspects include a Joburg councillor, and a member of the South African Police Service (SAPS) is under investigation for alleged involvement in the hijacking scheme.

City of Joburg cracking down on hijacked buildings

According to News24, the arrests come after the City of Joburg's inspections of hijacked buildings after over 70 people died in a fire in Marshalltown.

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Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda and the JMPD inspected the building that was supposed to be used as a pound on Wednesday, 6 September.

The city paid R40 million for the building, but hijackers took it over and started using it for construction work.

Gwamanda told the media that he was disappointed that a member of the Joburg council was a suspect. The arrested individuals face charges of malicious damage to property and city infrastructure, theft and vandalism.

City of Joburg heading to court over hijacked buildings

Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile said the department plans to head to court to get eviction orders against people illegally occupying the city's buildings.

According to Business Day, Maile explained that the government cannot remove people living in those buildings without an eviction order because it's against the constitution.

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“We need the courts to evict them. We are a law-abiding government. We are governed by the constitution. You can’t remove people unless you have a court order," said Maile.

Mzansi shocked a government official was arrested

@PressPlaySA said:

"What kind of mess is this? Government officials are behind the hijacking of buildings to extort money from poor people/tenants, they work with the police and also form NGOs to block evictions of people from the same buildings ‍@CityofJoburgZA @GautengProvince"

@MoyaProf said:

"SA is a depressing country, people in government are clearly at the forefront of crime. No wonder Joburg municipality didn’t bother to collect rates from these hijacked buildings, they were captured by the same officials. How deep does the corruption in government go?"

@saintmandela said:

"Let the public know who are the people behind these hijacked buildings. Are they locals or actually foreigners?"

@BeigeJourney said:

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"This is why things are not being fixed and have deteriorated in this country. People who are supposed to fix things are benefiting from the mess."

@NubianSen said:

"We always knew that they work with people within the council. A person without information will not sukhela a building and hijack it."

@nkulikankuli said:

"This is obvious, no wonder it's taken them decades to start acting like they're investigating hijacked buildings, it's been an inside job from the start."

Joburg MMCs Kunene and Tshwaku tour hijacked CBD buildings

Briefly News previously reported that two Johannesburg MMCs are on a mission to close hijacked buildings in the Johannesburg Central Business District (CDB).

Transport MMC Kenny Kunene accompanied MMC for Public Safety Mgcini Tshwaku for a walk through Vannin Court, a dilapidated building in Hilbrow, on Tuesday, 5 September.

Speaking to the media, Tshwaku explained that he and Kunene were inspecting the building as part of Operation Namge Namhlange and Operation Restore.

Source: Briefly News