A multi-departmental task force is preparing a unified legal offensive to reclaim roughly 2,400 hijacked and abandoned state properties across South Africa’s major metros.
Announced by Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi during an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Migration briefing last week, the coordinated strategy unites the departments of Human Settlements, Public Works, Cooperative Governance (Cogta), and Justice, alongside key State-Owned Enterprises including Eskom and Transnet.
With non-compliant properties increasingly linked to organised crime, illicit trade, and drug networks, the intervention prioritises state-owned assets before extending to the private sector.
The intervention is timely as the police continue to make further progress in the murder investigation of Warrick “DJ Warras” Stock, who was killed in the Johannesburg CBD last year after allegedly securing a court protection order against non-paying occupants of a hijacked building he was contracted to secure. A 40-year-old woman, alleged to be the mastermind behind the murder, was arrested this week and will join two other suspects who are already in the dock.
Kubayi said the team would be looking at court cases related to hijacked buildings.
“What we have decided to do is put together a legal team that will look at all the cases that are before courts that relate to this, consolidate them and put together a legal strategy to fight this,” Kubayi said.
A major constraint, Kubayi said, was that court orders for eviction or remediation cannot lawfully be carried out as municipalities have no funded temporary emergency accommodation to place occupants in.
Therefore, the three-pronged intervention will include a national funding model, led by Human Settlements, for temporary emergency accommodation; the prioritisation of hijacked-building matters by the justice department in the magistrates’ and high courts; and the adoption of a single national definition and reporting template, coordinated by Cogta.
The announcement comes after the Public Works’ Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE) last month faced tough questions in Parliament’s standing committee meeting over its effectiveness in reclaiming the state’s assets.
The Public Works department has also faced questions about efficient use of state assets as its budget on private property leases to house various government departments and entities sits at a hefty R6.32 billion.
Regarding the PMTE work, MPs were unimpressed with progress being made as only 20 hijacked government properties had been recovered in the past 18 months, despite millions of rand spent on legal fees and consultants.
It also emerged that 166 eviction applications identified for properties occupied illegally had also not yet been filed.
Since the beginning of the operational phase of the PMTE, more than R237 million had been committed to service provider contracts.
Asked whether the new strategy duplicated the work of the PMTE, IMC spokesperson William Baloyi said it would complement the entity’s efforts.
Angela Rivers of the Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association (JPOMA) said a coordinated national approach to problem and hijacked buildings was welcomed, particularly the recognition that the challenge is not simply a lack of legislation or enforcement powers, but the practical ability to execute.
“For many years, property owners in Johannesburg have experienced the consequences of building hijackings, illegal occupation and the deterioration of properties where enforcement processes become stalled. These buildings affect not only their owners, but surrounding residents, legitimate businesses, municipal revenue and ultimately the regeneration of entire precincts,” Rivers said.
“We particularly welcome the proposed national funding model for temporary emergency accommodation and the prioritisation of hijacked-building matters through the courts. These have been significant obstacles to resolving problem buildings in Johannesburg.”
Rivers said JPOMA supported the recognition that vacant and under-utilised buildings can be repurposed for affordable rental housing.
“We would welcome the opportunity for the organised property sector to participate in the development of the implementation framework.”
DA MP Bonginkosi Madikizela said the government’s approach to reclaiming hijacked buildings was costly and ineffective, arguing that the department needed to assess each property properly before deciding how to recover and use it.
“One of the buildings in Carletonville that the (Public Works) department claimed to have recovered has people in it right now. The approach the department is following is completely wrong and it will cost us a lot of money. I believe we have to first properly assess the status of these properties, get evaluations and determine what the intended use of these properties is. That will inform the approach,” Madikizela said.
“We can spend R20m chasing a building worth R500,000; that needs a different strategy. We have to, for example, know if the municipality needs the property for its own use. If it’s for commercial use, then get private partners to get those people out.
“The approach of going around the country identifying these properties for a register and putting together a legal team is just a losing battle. We have already spent so much money.”
EFF MP Sharon Letlepe said the government had failed to provide a clear plan for recovered buildings, leaving the properties vulnerable to being occupied again.
“The biggest issue is that there is no plan for buildings even when they get recovered. What we questioned extensively was, after over R240m is spent, what is the plan to make sure these properties do not get occupied again? And it was not forthcoming,” Letlepe said.
“The issue here is that the department leaves these buildings vulnerable and people then identify them for their own use. There is no IMC strategy that will work until they can clearly spell out refurbishment and use.”
ntsikelelo.qoyo@nationalmg.co.za