The Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) has opened 16 fraud cases with the police and approached the high court to obtain urgent interdicts to reverse the alleged expropriation without compensation of city-owned properties by private individuals and companies.
JPC spokesperson Lucky Sindane told Sowetan the municipality did not authorise the transfers or sale of the properties, which were discovered to have been transferred into private hands.
“The city did not sell these pieces of land,” said Sindane.
Sindane said the transfers took place in 2024 and involve vacant municipal properties in the city.
“Most of the properties are in Marlboro Gardens, which is why many of the criminal cases were registered at Bramley police station. Other properties are in Linbro Park, Ormonde, Aeroton, Lenasia South, Ruimsig and Soweto,” he said.
Sindane said the suspected fraudulent transfers were uncovered through the city’s geographic information systems (GIS) department, which tracks property ownership changes to ensure the municipality bills the correct property owners.
The city did not sell these pieces of land.
— Johannesburg Property Company spokesperson Lucky Sindane
“The City of Joburg’s GIS department assisted the JPC by extracting property transfers that occurred on land owned by the city. These were analysed internally to determine the legitimacy of the transfers,” he said.
“Fraudulent documents with forged signatures, purporting to be those of the City of Johannesburg, the JPC and the Gauteng department of human settlements, were used to effect the illegal transfers.”
He said some properties were transferred to private individuals while others were registered under companies with traceable directors.
The JPC has opened 16 fraud cases at police stations and filed urgent applications in the Joburg high court to obtain court orders reversing the transfers and restoring the properties to the city.
Sindane said for there are no indications of involvement by city officials in the corruption.
Police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi confirmed fraud cases have been opened for further investigation by police.
Sindane acknowledged this is not the first time the city has uncovered illegal transfers of municipal property.
He said a similar incident occurred in 2010, when several municipal properties were fraudulently transferred.
“At that time, investigations found fraudsters had used officials from the SA Revenue Service and the municipality to facilitate the transfers. The city approached the courts and obtained interdicts to recover all the illegally transferred properties,” he said.
The latest case comes amid ongoing concerns about property fraud, hijacked buildings and illegal land occupation in Johannesburg which continue to challenge the city’s management of public property.
Sowetan
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