The phenomenon of “hijacked buildings” is unique to multicultural parts of South Africa, where criminal gangs take over high-rise buildings and then charge the inhabitants protection money, completely side-lining the real owners.
Cape York is situated on the corner of Nugget and Jeppe streets, Johannesburg. Prior to the ANC takeover of the country, it was a valuable piece of real estate, worth millions of dollars. With all the changes in the country, so-called “white flight”, as well as an influx of foreigners from all over Africa into downtown Johannesburg, it has become a high-rise slum, notorious for prostitution and drug dealing. The Johannesburg municipality has also changed all street names in the city centre, wiping out all the Western names and replacing them with African names.
The fire on Wednesday was apparently started by a disgruntled inhabitant who was ejected from his room, whereupon he started a fire, with the inferno eventually engulfing the entire Cape York.
According to an official investigation, the building is no longer fit for habitation; yet the black residents have again moved in because they do not have any other form of accommodation.
The ANC (African National Congress) councillor for the aread, Nokuthula Xaba, said that the building had been the scene of a crime and therefore no-one should have immediate access to it. According to her, by law the building should be empty for at least three days while the alleged arson is being investigated.
However, Nokuthula Xaba herself made the news a few years ago because she was enjoying free accommodation in a nurses’ residence in Hospital Street, Johannesburg. She had previously been a nurse and had kept her free apartment without informing the authorities of her new occupation as local politician.
Residents of the building were evicted on Wednesday shortly after the fire, but many of them have subsequently returned to Cape York.
Charitable organisations have been handing out blankets and food to those residents who have returned to the building.
Nokuthula Xaba also appealed to the public to donate money. “We need open hands; help, help please,”she told reporters on the scene.
At least a hundred thousand people are living in “hijacked” buildings in the inner city of Johannesburg with slum lords enjoying the fruits of multimillion-rand businesses.
The city of Johannesburg claims 36 cases of buildings being hijacked have been reported recently, with 11 alleged property hijackings being investigated for the period of 2014/2015.
The city itself in 2015 estimated that a massive 400 buildings in the inner city had been hijacked.
