Residential hijackings are on the increase in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, with the City confirming that 17 properties are under investigation. So just how do you hijack a property? And what can be done once the property has been taken over?
Earlier this month, City of Johannesburg officials raided a hijacked residential property in the leafy, affluent suburb of Bryanston that had been turned into a makeshift village illegally housing more than 70 families. Days later, on 12 January, a second hijacked Bryanston property, valued at R5.5-million, was raided by officials, underscoring that a problem that was once thought to be confined to Johannesburg’s CBD has spread into its suburbs. The operations were led by the City manager, Dr Floyd Brink, who confirmed that at least 17 residential properties in the area were being investigated for similar infringements.
A suspect, Lawrence Ramalwa, was arrested on 8 January in connection with both raided properties. He has since been released on bail and is due to appear in court on 27 February. According to media reports, the R5.5-million property was hijacked in 2020 and illegally reconnected to utilities after it had been disconnected by the owner.
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It is alleged Ramalwa retrofitted the house with makeshift structures, collecting more than R164,000 a month in rent from the tenants. The property racked up more than R1.1-million in municipal arrears, long after the owners flagged that it had been hijacked. “These interventions form part of an ongoing, multi-departmental strategy to reclaim hijacked buildings, enforce by-laws, protect communities, and hold perpetrators accountable,” Brink said on 12 January.
“No individual or group is above the law.” So how does one hijack a house? And what options do homeowners have once they find themselves in this position? Andre Snyman, head of eBlockwatch, a local community watch group, told Daily Maverick that house hijacking is a growing problem in Bryanston and is organised by criminal syndicates that have been operating in the area for years unnoticed by neighbours and the City.
He explained that house hijackers use two methods. With the first, they pose as legitimate renters to landlords under the pretext that they are interested in renting to buy. They often lack legitimate documents but manage to persuade landlords by offering large sums of money upfront as deposits and promising to cover maintenance costs themselves.
“[The hijacker] signs [a] contract with the owner with an offer to buy, to purchase, but first rental. […] He pays maybe the first month, but he says, if you want me to buy this property, the swimming pool needs to be redone, or the geyser’s not working; he starts small […]. “And then he says, I’ll fix it up and I’ll deduct it off my rent.
And of course, the owner’s keen,” Snyman said. “So then that is the first mistake that the guys make because he now can deduct stuff off the rent.” Soon, the hijacker stops paying rent altogether and refuses to leave the property, forcing the landlords to go through the courts to obtain a legal eviction order. The hijackers use the money they’ve already spent on the house as ammunition in court and then employ a number of tricks to drag out the process over several years.
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