How were City properties secretly transferred to private hands?

The City of Johannesburg Property Company has opened criminal cases after uncovering that severalCity-owned propertieswere fraudulently transferred to private individuals without the municipality’s knowledge or consent. This revelation was uncovered during a routine verification process by the City of Johannesburg’s GIS department, which monitors property transfers to ensure municipal billing records reflect the correct property owners. During the process, officials flagged suspicious transactions involving properties registered under the City, prompting an internal investigation to determine the legitimacy of the transfers.

Officials said preliminary findings indicate that fraudulent documents and forged signatures were used to illegally transfer the properties to private individuals. “The preliminary findings by the Property Intelligence and Asset Management Unit indicated that fraudulent documents with forged signatures, purporting to be those of CoJ, JPC and Gauteng Provincial Department of Human Settlements officials were used to fraudulently transfer the properties to other individuals.” The City said the transfers do not comply with Section 14(2) of the MFMA, which governs the disposal of municipal assets. Following the discovery, the Property Intelligence and Asset Management Unit opened 18 criminal cases at various police stations with the South African Police Service between February 17 and March 11 for further investigation. In addition to the criminal probes, JPC Legal Services has approached the High Court in Gauteng seeking urgent interdicts and court orders to reverse the transactions and return the properties to the City.