Police will raid buildings they suspect have been hijacked, Gauteng community safety minister Khabisi Mosunkutu said on Thursday.
”During these raids we shall be demanding proof of ownership. Failure to produce [proof] will have extremely negative consequences as we may deem the person a hijacker,” Mosunkutu told reporters in Johannesburg.
”We will fall upon them like a ton of bricks.”
The raids would take place at the end of August.
”The focus is on Johannesburg because this is where the problem is more endemic,” said Mosunkutu.
Recently, police raided 12 buildings in the province believed to be hijacked and 158 undocumented people were found.
Hijacked buildings were often abandoned by their legitimate owners and were then run by people who ”muscle in and take over buildings”, said Mosunkutu.
The illegitimate owners then charge tenants for rent and services, often in collusion with corrupt city officials and police.
”People get enslaved, victims of these high rates they have to pay,” said Mosunkutu.
Mosunkutu said some of the hijacked buildings were being run by syndicates and a single syndicate could operate as many as 90 buildings.
South African Police Service Provincial Commissioner Perumal Naidoo said police had been battling building hijackers for some time and knew how to identify them, including their relationship with corrupt police officers.
”What they look for is when certain rogue police are implicated,” said Naidoo. He promised that those police officers would be arrested.
”The fact that they are wearing a uniform will not protect them,” said Naidoo.
”We are coming after them.”
Naidoo and Mosunkutu said that tenants of hijacked buildings had nothing to fear from the raids and even appealed for their help in identifying criminals.
”Tenants have nothing to fear in these raids. Instead, their cooperation with law enforcement agents will be to their benefit,” said Mosunkutu.
However, he later added that illegal immigrants, many of whom were tenants in hijacked buildings, would be dealt with by Home Affairs, who in the past have been participants in building raids.
Mosunkutu said their undocumented status was a contributing cause of building hijacking.
”One of the things that makes this practice flourish are people who cannot account for their presence,” he said. — Sapa