Inside SA‘s building hijack economy linked to DJ Warras’s death

AT FIRST glance, the building looks merely neglected: broken windows patched with cardboard, a security gate welded shut, a tangle of illegal electricity cables draped across the facade like vines.

- STAFF REPORTER

JOBURG... a city of hijacked syndicates.

(TIMOTHY BERNARD Independent Newspapers)

But behind the locked doors of many inner-city buildings in Johannesburg, a highly organised criminal economy is at work, one that property owners, investigators and housing advocates say is generating billions of rand a year while hollowing out South Africa's cities.

The death of DJ Warras, gunned down in broad daylight outside the Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg earlier this week, is alleged to almost certainly be a hit believed to be linked to building hijackers.

His death brought into focus the issue of hijacked buildings throughout South Africa, and in Joburg especially. Joburg Transport MEC Kenny Kunene said: “we are at war with hijackers of buildings” adding that the death of Warrick “DJ Warras” Stock signals the battle for control of inner-city properties which had escalated into a full-blown war. “They have made the lives of South Africans intolerable” he said of the hijackers adding that the City of Joburg was also losing billions in unpaid bills.

Across South Africa's major metros such as Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Ggeberha, East London and parts of Cape Town, criminal syndicates have seized control of thousands of residential and commercial properties.

Estimates from property owners and urban researchers put the number at around 5 000 buildings nationwide, with roughly 1 100 in Johannesburg's central business district alone of both government and privately owned properties.

These are not spontaneous occupations driven by desperation, owners say. They are coordinated takeovers run like shadow property companies: rent is collected in cash, enforced through intimidation; utilities are illegally connected; and anyone who resists is threatened into silence.