‘Tenants in hijacked buildings don’t want to reveal who they pay’

The City of Johannesburg says some tenants residing in hijacked buildings don’t want to reveal who they pay rent to, as investigations into the legitimate building owners continue.

Acting executive manager in the Johannesburg Human Settlements Department Oupa Nkoane testified at the Khampepe Commission of inquiry into the Usindiso building fire.

The blaze claimed 76 lives and displaced others in 2023.

Nkoane says they are working hard to reclaim the building from unscrupulous landlords.

“People in those buildings, they don’t want to disclose who they are paying, but they’re paying. But I’m going to consistently have this rider decisively in the process dealing with the criminal element that has hijacked the buildings and making so much money, until we reclaim the cities, the buildings from the criminal element, we won’t win.”