PLAN TO RECLAIM HIJACKED BUILDINGS

Strategy entails early detection

- LOYISO SIDIMBA AND GENEVIEVE SERRA

THE government has announced ambitious plans for hijacked and abandoned buildings it owns across the country, including establishing a dedicated team to assist with investigations.

The new strategy will entail early detection and intelligence gathering on potential invasion of state land, hijacking of unoccupied buildings, and rapid response to eviction of illegal occupants before 48 hours elapse as prescribed by law.

It is hoped that the approach will include investigations and arrests of shark landlords and state-owned building vandalisers and/or looters, and provision of security and escort services for government officials during site visits to illegally occupied land and buildings.

The plans include the arrests of undocumented foreign nationals and on state-owned properties they unlawfully occupy. The government will provide security services to the sheriff of the court on serving illegal occupants with eviction court orders as well as during eviction operations.

Nyeleti Mthetwa, deputy director-general responsible for real estate management services at the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), revealed details of the plans last week during the SA Local Government Association's (Salgas) two-day national municipal legal practitioners' forum.

The stakeholders the DPWI wants to be involved in include the South African Police Service, Justice and Home Affairs departments, Salga, municipalities, and businesses. The DPWI is in total looking at 1 287 properties that were identified by an Ernst and Young forensic investigation in 2016, and since then, the department has undertaken a due diligence exercise to determine the nature of the illegal occupation so that the appropriate action may be taken.