South Africa’s economic hub, Johannesburg, is under siege.
Weeks after a devastating gas explosion, yet another tremor had hit the country’s golden city last week when news of an even worse tragedy broke –the loss of 77 lives in a fire at a hijacked building.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba comes to mind for championing the fight against hijacked buildings during his tenure.
He was called names and reported to the South African Human Rights Commission for being xenophobic, but he wanted to remove the gangsters who manage the buildings, believed to be foreign nationals.
Mashaba, the founder and now leader of ActionSA, tried to reclaim some of the buildings in the Joburg CBD, Hillbrow, Yeoville and other parts of the city, but was met with resistance from several human rights bodies, including political parties.
But it has for a long time been public knowledge that the buildings have been captured by foreigners who are not paying rates and services to the metro.
At one stage, a property owner was on record as saying that the foreign nationals had moved into his building and told the tenants they had bought it. They forced the tenants to pay rent to them, while they did nothing to maintain the building or service the municipal bills.
Typically, a commission of inquiry has been appointed to investigate the latest tragedy. Fund-raising campaigns will be held for the victims and their families.
However, the truth is that no one has stood up to the building hijackers since Mashaba vacated the Joburg hot seat.
Well, this week Johannesburg’s Transport MMC Kenny Kunene said the dilapidated buildings were a crime scene, and called for the occupants to be urgently evacuated.
And as usual, ours has proven to be a government that reacts only after a tragedy.
We hope that the blood of those who died in the fire will nourish the tree that will drive the will to finally do something about abandoned and hijacked buildings.
Cape Times