Sewerage in the streets spills over into potholes. A slim door leads into a dark underworld, where a community navigates an ecosystem only they know how to survive in.
Live electricity wires hang just past your ear lobe, webbing across the ceiling, with homes scattered in the dark, separated by only makeshift scaffolding.
These are the scenes witnessed by acting Johannesburg mayor Kenny Kunene during a blitz that is part of the city's operation to revamp the inner city.
The state of the city has been the centre of criticism against the incumbent government. Just last week, the DA filed a motion of no confidence in Johannesburg city mayor Dada Morero for having failed to turn things around.
The tragic loss of 77 lives in a dilapidated building, Usindiso, in Marshalltown, in August 2023 lingers; very little has changed.
The City of Johannesburg clamped down on a hijacked property as part of their cleanup campaign, but the scenes were all too familiar after the scathing revelations that emerged from the inquiry into the deadly blaze that claimed so many lives in the CBD in 2023.
The operation discovered a makeshift crèche with visibly malnourished children in unsanitary conditions.
Despite some fleeing when law enforcement, JMPD and private security pounced in the area, accompanied by a delegation led by the acting mayor and MMCs, some arrests were made of people without documentation.
The children? Left behind in total darkness with no supervision.
There was no trace of the syndicate that has hijacked the building, claiming monies from those residing there.
This is just one of many buildings. This is the story of the Johannesburg inner city. It's another Usindiso waiting to happen.
Kunene wants property rights to be revisited following his assessment of an ongoing campaign to rid the inner city of crime and grime.
“Property rights say that you can’t evict a person, but it does not define the person. When a criminal has hijacked your house and you go to the police, what is the standing of the person when they have committed a crime?
“Before you evict them, the courts say you must find alternative accommodation for them, when they have unlawfully occupied your house? It can’t be,” said Kunene.
On Tuesday Kunene was leading the charge against illegality in the Johannesburg CBD, raiding hijacked buildings, enforcing bylaws, cutting illegal electricity connections and detaining undocumented foreigners.
The last time Kunene was given the reins, non-governmental organisations criticised his raids, taking him to task over his actions.
However, the acting mayor says he remains firm in his decision. He was accompanied by public safety MMC Mgcini Tshwaku and environment and infrastructure development MMC Jack Sekwaila.
“Our children and young girls are being human trafficked. Drugs are on every corner. We cannot say that because SERI [Socio-Economic Rights Institute] is going to take us to court ... We will go to these buildings and we will do what we do. SERI can’t stop us from cutting electricity and illegal connections. We have cut it, let them go to court.”
Instead, he dared the justice system to observe the grim reality in the CBD before making decisions he said were detached from reality.
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