Johannesburg's building hijacking crisis is a slow-motion catastrophe that has been visible for two decades and yet remains unresolved. It is the story of how the failure of government at every level — national housing policy, provincial oversight, and municipal enforcement — created the conditions for criminal syndicates to profit from human desperation, and how 77 people died in a fire that everyone knew was coming.
**How Buildings Get Hijacked**
Building hijacking in Johannesburg follows a well-documented pattern. As the inner city experienced economic decline from the mid-1990s, building owners — unable to collect rent or maintain properties — abandoned them. Criminal syndicates moved in, often changing locks and presenting themselves as "new landlords" or "property managers." They subdivide units into tiny cubicles, collect rent (typically R500-R1,500 per month per cubicle), and provide nothing: no fire exits, no maintained electrical systems, no water, no refuse removal, no building maintenance.
The residents are overwhelmingly poor, many of them undocumented migrants who cannot access formal housing. They pay rent to syndicate collectors because they have no alternative. The municipal by-law enforcement that should prevent this — building inspections, fire safety compliance, eviction of illegal occupiers — has been non-existent or ineffective for decades.
**The Scale**
The City of Johannesburg's own register identified over 600 hijacked buildings as of 2019. The actual number is likely higher. These buildings house an estimated 200,000+ people in conditions that violate every building safety regulation in existence. The criminal syndicates operating the buildings generate an estimated R1 billion+ annually — a substantial criminal economy operating in plain sight.
**The Usindiso Fire**
On 31 August 2023, fire broke out in the Usindiso Building at 80 Albert Street in the Johannesburg CBD. The building was hijacked and occupied by hundreds of residents, many of them undocumented migrants. Fire exits were blocked or non-existent. Stairwells were obstructed. Illegal electrical connections — the building had no formal electricity supply — created fire hazards throughout the structure.
77 people died, including 12 children. Many were trapped on upper floors with no escape route. Emergency services struggled to access the building due to its deteriorated condition. It was one of the deadliest building fires in South African history.
**Decades of Municipal Failure**
Every Johannesburg mayor since the early 2000s has acknowledged the hijacked buildings crisis. None has resolved it:
- The ANC-led councils of the 2000s and 2010s launched various "task teams" and "inner city regeneration" programmes that produced studies but little action. - Herman Mashaba (DA-led coalition, 2016-2019) launched a "bad buildings" programme that achieved some reclamations but was abandoned after his resignation. - Political instability — Johannesburg has had multiple mayors in quick succession — ensured that no sustained programme could be implemented. - The Prevention of Illegal Eviction (PIE) Act complicated enforcement, as courts required alternative accommodation before eviction orders could be executed, and the city consistently failed to provide alternatives.
The fundamental problem is that Johannesburg has a massive housing deficit and an inner city filled with desperate people who will live anywhere rather than have nowhere to live. Without a housing solution, enforcement merely displaces people from one dangerous building to another.
**After Usindiso**
The Usindiso fire produced the predictable cycle: shock, political statements, task teams, and eventual inaction. Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda — himself mired in personal financial scandal allegations — faced calls for resignation. An inquest was opened. Arrests were made of individuals connected to the building's management. But the underlying crisis — 600+ hijacked buildings, 200,000+ people in danger — remained unaddressed.