The recent cold-blooded killing of two building managers in Hillbrow, allegedly by building hijackers, has shocked property owners and investors.
The Esselen Street building was hijacked six months ago.
Now property owners have hit out at the police, who, they say, refuse to act in ridding the area of building hijackers.
Thursday night’s murders come at a time when Joburg is trying to clean out bad buildings, offering tax incentives to those who invest, renovate and develop buildings in the inner city.
Charles Joubert and Sipho Kunene, employed by Connaught Properties, which has a big portfolio of buildings in the city centre and its surrounds, were called to attend a tenants’ meeting in Park Mews in Esselen Street on Thursday.
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The men were shot dead as they got into their car after the meeting. Nothing was stolen.
Six buildings owned by Connaught Properties’ George Palmer have been hijacked. He has managed to get four back by offering tenants the option of purchasing their units.
Parker was negotiating with Park Mews tenants when the murders occurred.
“We believe the two managers were set up, because as they left the building, they were shot in the back of the head 15 times.”
Parker said criminals saw he was getting the co-operation of the tenants and regaining control, and that was why they arranged for the assassination.
Security guards placed in the building after the murders were threatened at the weekend and chased away.
“Again the police refused to act,” Parker claimed. “There is anarchy – these criminals do what they want and get away with it.”
He said he had written to the Hillbrow police numerous times, telling them that the building was a haven for criminals. They repeatedly refused to act.
“All reports of hijacking to the SAPS remain useless. The standard response is that it is a civil matter and that eviction orders should be obtained.
“This can take years and cost hundreds of thousands of rands, besides the loss of rentals and being responsible for exorbitant water and electricity bills,” said Palmer.
Spokesperson Renney Plitt of the Property Owners and Managers’ Association, which represents 29 owners of 880 buildings in the inner city, said the executive mayor’s rejuvenation plans would never happen while incidents such as the two murders were allowed to happen.
“We get little support from the SAPS, who don’t consider building hijackings to be a criminal offence. We get regular reports of security guards, instead of illegal occupants, being arrested.
“The standard reply from the SAPS is that they do this to defuse a hostile situation as they do not have man-power to handle the potential conflict.”
Plitt said another problem was that in most cases, utilities refused to disconnect water and electricity, so the criminals collected money for these from the tenants. The landlord was saddled with the bills, in addition to having lost his property.
SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Sanku Tsunke said it was not true that the police did not react.
“We had meetings with Joubert (one of those killed last week) and it was decided that we would raid the building.
“However, after the murders, an eviction order was put on hold. We still raided the building but found nothing.”
- This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on August 01, 2005
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