The City of Tshwane’s fight against hijacking of inner-city buildings could soon take a new turn aimed at deporting illegal immigrants likely to be found guilty of invading those properties.
This comes after MMC for Community Safety, Grandi Theunissen, also FF Plus councillor, indicated that the municipality and the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, agreed to join hands in addressing the problem.
“It is expected that a formal co-operative agreement will be entered into soon,” he said.
As part of the agreement, he said, illegal immigrants, particularly those guilty of crime and illegal land occupation, will soon be deported to their country of origin.
Theunissen said: “The FF Plus discussed how to address several pressing problems, including illegal land occupation, crime, the sale of counterfeit goods, cable theft, illegal electricity connections and extortion, with Minister Schreiber on Friday.”
He cited foreigners who illegally occupy abandoned buildings in the city centre as one of the biggest issues.
Illegal occupants, he said, would rent rooms to other undocumented foreigners which poses a health, fire and safety risk.
“It is suspected that syndicates are working with city officials, law firms and the deeds office to transfer properties to criminals’ names,” he said.
He pointed out that large quantities of counterfeit goods are being sold in Pretoria west, where many Somalis live, while drug trafficking is the order of the day in Sunnyside where mostly Nigerians live.
“Centurion and Pretoria East, where Zimbabweans and Mozambicans are concentrated, are affected by cable theft and infrastructure vandalism.
He said the minister was asked to help with immediate deportation, more stringent border control and investigating corruption at South African borders.
“The FF Plus is of the opinion that other departments should also be involved to curb the problem effectively. The illegal hijacking of buildings in Tshwane must be stopped, so, the FF Plus is committed to eradicating the problem and the crime that goes hand in hand with it,” he said.
Early this year former MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, Kingsley Wakelin, now MP, said the City wanted to tackle hijacked and illegally occupied buildings in the Pretoria CBD in line with a resolution passed by council.
Melgisedek buildings in Riviera were said to be top on the list of illegally occupied properties targeted by the City in terms of the council-approved programme called Tshwane Sustainable and Better Buildings.
The programme is aimed at driving inner-city regeneration by tackling derelict and illegally occupied buildings.
Wakelin said negligent property owners, slumlords, and building hijacking syndicates have taken advantage of people desperate for affordable and well-located accommodation, leading to the illegal occupation of buildings.
Pretoria News