Johannesburg - They are a new breed of building hijackers who are moving into the more affluent suburbs of Gauteng and they do their dirty work with the help of assault rifles and lawyers.
These highly organised syndicates are operating because they have learnt to exploit the legal system so as to keep their tenants in hijacked properties for as long as they can while raking in millions of rand.
For the legal owners it takes months or even years to evict the tenants at a cost of sometimes hundreds of thousands of rand. Then there is the fear that the hijackers will return.
“What we have experienced is that building hijackers don’t just give up after they have been evicted. They do attempt further incursions. So my clients are incurring expenses in that they have to keep armed security personnel on the premises for a few months after the fact,” said Dominic Steyn, head of corporate, commercial, tax and litigation at Cowan-Harper-Madikizela Attorneys.
Steyn’s clients, who are victims of building hijackings, are reluctant to talk to the media about their experiences. They fear victimisation and they also fear what the building hijackers will do to their tenants. However, Steyn described to the “Saturday Star” how one recent building hijacking happened in Pretoria East.
“They had established prior to the time that the caretaker was a resident in the building and which unit he was staying in. They then went in and beat up the caretaker to secure master keys for all the entrances and exits, as well as all of the units,” said Steyn.
The gang was also heavily armed with AK-47s, added Steyn, and were involved in shoot-outs with security personnel. In Steyn’s experience the police have not been helpful in dealing with building hijackers, and in some places may be assisting them.
To evict tenants occupying an illegal building the owners have to approach the high court. But this isn’t the end of the journey. Building hijacking syndicates monitor the court rolls and will challenge the eviction process.
“They will take it all the way through to the Supreme Court of Appeal,” said Steyn.
“And they just delay, they are not trying to do anything.”
Sometimes they will even spend hundreds of thousands on lawyers’ fees so as to keep their tenants in the building for as long as possible. In return they make millions of rand.
“I think people realise there is easy money to be made,” said Steyn.
The chase for this easy money is causing the syndicates to push into new, more upmarket areas, according to Steyn. And it is happening across the country.
There have been instances where they have commandeered residences in security estates.
To stop these building hijackers, Steyn believes changes need to be made to the Prevention of Illegal Eviction From and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE Act), which has loopholes that allow these criminals to operate.
“If you change PIE so that in special circumstances it will not apply to where there has been a forced entry or an attempt, then the police will be able to act better. Also a property owner will be able to act with much more alacrity and get people out.”
Private investigator and crime expert Mike Bolhuis said South Africans should be extremely concerned about the new criminal trend as the hijacking of residential properties has dramatically increased recently.
“We are aware of this and are involved in a number of cases where properties have been hijacked. We have been warning people for years now about the threat and it has escalated dramatically over the years.”
Bolhuis said the trend started with contract hijackings, but now all residential areas in the country could be vulnerable.
“It is not necessarily a specific area that they are targeting. These criminals target homes when people leave for holidays. As long as homes are vacant, they will be targets,” he said.
Bolhuis added that even when homeowners go away for business or there may be a death in the family and the property is vacant, criminals will monitor the property, do surveillance and then go after your property.
“While you’re gone, your house has been entered. Perhaps neighbours and security are not on high alert and aren’t aware of what is going on. Within days you find people staying in your house. Even if the information leaks out, you are far away. You try to deal with it via distance. But you know, one of the worst problems we have in this country is the removal of property hijackers, because the police do not assist or remove.”
Property owners have to return to open cases of trespassing, but that takes time and it could be years till you resolve the issue. By that time, the number of tenants in your home will have grown.
“With these syndicates, they work in structures. One person will take ownership of the property and then he or she rents it out. It’s racketeering at its best.”
He said criminals hijacking residential properties will first raid a house of all its valuables before taking over the property.
Bolhuis urged homeowners to inform neighbours and the community police when they are going away and leaving their property vacant for lengthy periods.
“It’s very important that you have a good relationship with your community, so that if one person or several people do go away, that there's a community watch, private security watch, as well as proper security in place.
“There should be proper security in place, alarm system, etc. If you live in an affluent area, then you have the money to protect your property properly, and that’s exactly what you need to do with all the necessary technology.”
Bolhuis said people living in estates and complexes are also vulnerable to property hijackings.
“This can happen with people in estates, with people in poorer vicinities. This can happen in any open and vacant property and this could happen to a vacant property that has nothing on it and shacks could be put up.”
Bolhuis said even government buildings have fallen victim to building hijackers.
“There are many government buildings that have been hijacked by looters and beggars on the street. We have had many such cases and what we have noticed is that these criminals work very quickly.”
Human Settlement spokesperson Hlengiwe Nhlabathi said the illegal occupation of private properties, particularly land parcels, affects the delivery of sustainable human settlements.
“There are cases in Gauteng and other provinces where serviced stands have been illegally occupied. This has led to the government and the National Department of Human Settlements being unable to meet its housing delivery targets and to provide houses for those in need,” she said.
In her address to the community members at Impumelelo township, in the Sedibeng District Municipality, ahead of yesterday’s presidential imbizo, Minister of Human Settlements Mmamoloko Kubayi appealed to community members to partner with the government to stop land invasion as this has serious implications for the delivery of houses for the poor. She cautioned them to isolate those who participate in this illegal act.