JOHANNESBURG – Through undercover operatives, the City of Joburg, is slowly making headway in uncovering who the kingpins are behind building hijackings in the inner city.
On Wednesday, MMC for public safety Mgcini Tshwaku accompanied City Power to Betty Street to cut off electricity to a number of hijacked buildings.
Tshwaku revealed that the city had compiled a number of dossiers pertaining to who the kingpins are.
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The City of Joburg plans to launch a unit to deal with illegally hijacked buildings within the inner city.
This as it attempts to ramp up efforts to root out criminal elements and take back control of the area.
MMC for public safety Mgcini Tshwaku: “We are launching a unit, a crime combating unit, where we are not going to tolerate crime anywhere, so it is coming.”
Tshwaku said the unit would be similar to a relocation and eviction unit, popularly known as the Red Ants.
He said that as part of the information-gathering efforts to identify the kingpins, they deployed undercover operatives in certain hijacked buildings.
“We have undercover units everywhere, so these thugs who are running [amock] here, we are going to be zooming into them very quickly.”
The City of Joburg said it was investigating 188 hijacked buildings within the inner city.