The recently elected Joburg Mayor Dada Morero has declared that the problems pertaining to the hijacking of inner-city buildings were more complex than they first seemed.
The Usindiso Building, a Marshalltown property that had been illegally taken over caught fire exactly a year ago, causing the deaths of 77 people who lived there. On Saturday, it was a year since the deadly fire.
Since then, this has brought attention to the eviction of thousands of people from buildings in the Johannesburg CBD and their horrible living circumstances.
After Marshalltown, many incidents including Lillian Ngoyi Street (formerly Bree Street) inner city gas explosion have plagued the city to date.
“The challenges in the inner city are much bigger than we thought. We require as much partnership as possible including provincial government.
“We have other ways of dealing with hijacked and bad buildings which a proper plan would be unveiled in the next week to deal with those that have court judgments,” he said.
He stressed that they could not enter hijacked buildings without court judgments giving them express permission, adding that “we have about nine judgments and we will be acting on those buildings.”
“There are also solutions in what we are going to do to house the homeless people,” he added.
Morero called on communities to take responsibility and ensure that as they look for housing opportunities, they look for them in the right place.
“They have now allowed themselves to be exploited by criminal syndicates who are forcing them to pay when in fact the building is hijacked.
“So we are looking at innovation to resolve those some the matters but give us some time and we will respond,” he said.
Morero vowed that they would fight the issues of illegal migration in the city.
kamogelo.moichela@iol.co.za
IOL Politics