‘Property hijackers’ to appear in court

28 suspects arrested during Joburg raids

Almost 30 people implicated in the hijacking of buildings in the City of Joburg are expected to appear in court tomorrow.

The 28 suspects, who are all South African citizens except for one, were nabbed in Rosettenville and Turffontein, south of Johannesburg, yesterday following raids conducted by the city’s forensic and investigation services in partnership with the police.

“We arrested 28 people, some will be charged for property [hijacking] and others for trespassing and contempt of court. In some of the properties, the owners had obtained eviction orders and evicted the people from those properties they hijacked,” said the city’s strategic stakeholder management director Lucky Sindane.

“The people forcefully went back to those properties again, that’s why they will be charged for trespassing and contempt of court.”

He said 22 buildings have been handed over to their lawful owners since the city’s forensic and investigation services unit was formed in December 2016.

Sindane said during the raid, also conducted with officials from the departments of Home Affairs and Social Services, they discovered that in one property in Rosettenville, an alleged building hijacker was collecting R21 000 rent per month for the past four years.

“The owner of the property was denied access to the property and [was robbed of an opportunity] to collect rent in the process,” said Sindane.

He said though in previous raids they have arrested people engaged in drug-dealing in hijacked buildings, yesterday’s swoop did not discover people engaged in other illegal activities.