Buildings next to hijacked ones in Joburg CBD paying dear price

JOHANNESBURG - For the past five years, a property management company in Johannesburg’s inner city has spent millions trying to fix issues that come with an adjacent hijacked building.

The hijacked Casa Mia building on Soper Road, in Berea, is owned by the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (JOSHCO), an arm of the city of Johannesburg.

And despite numerous meetings, promises and legal battles, the building remains a hub of criminality and a cesspool of filth.

Muggings, stabbings and shootings are a daily battle for tenants living across the street from the hijacked building in Berea.

READ: Gauteng & CoJ govts have failed to come up with plans to deal with hijacked buildings

Lethu Khanyile from private property management company Jozi Housing, said they have spent millions on security, cleaning up and safety for their tenants living opposite the Casa Mia hijacked building on Soper Road.

“In totality as Jozi Housing, we spend about close to 200k per month.”

He said despite efforts to engage the city, which owns the hijacked building, nothing has come of it.

“It has been a difficult five years, I even have a chain of emails starting from those years, engaging these people, but then nobody is willing to talk.”

The building is illegally connected to water and the electricity grid. 

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