Corrupt officials in the City of Johannesburg register fake NGOs to claim buildings so that they can be “hijacked” for rentals. That is according to Mpho Dagada, the President of a new political party, Arise SA. Dagada was a Fourth Industrial Revolution commissioner in the Presidency. He tells BizNews why he believes that elected officials in the City of Johannesburg should be held accountable for the deaths of 77 people who died in a fire that gutted a building in Marshalltown last week. Dagada describes in detail the alleged modus operandi of the slum syndicates – and urges voters to remember the victims of the building fire when they go to the polls. – Chris Steyn
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Highlights from the interview
Corrupt officials in the City of Johannesburg register fake NGOs to claim buildings so that they can be “hijacked” for rentals.
That is according to Mpho Dagada, the President of a new political party, Arise SA. Dagada was a Fourth Industrial Revolution commissioner in the Presidency.
He tells BizNews why he believes that elected officials in the City of Johannesburg should be held accountable for the deaths of 77 people who died in a fire that gutted a building in Marshall Town last week.
Dagada describes the alleged modus operandi of the slum syndicates thus:
“Now, the hijack term is a term that, you know, people don’t really look at it for what it is. It does not mean that the South African police force and government are unable to actually get rid of these problems. It means that NGOs are registered that claim these buildings, that actually get these buildings.
“And the process is quite dubious. What usually happens is, you know, the City or people within the City try and actually get owners out of their buildings. And how they do that is by, you know, dubious tax reports, dubious reports where they go in and they actually report on rates and taxes for the city, where they inflate amounts, where they go in and break things, they break systems, they make sure that the owners of these buildings are frustrated to the point of no return where they themselves then just disengage in the buildings.
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“And what they do is they bring them back into the City and they give them to an NGO. Now, as they give them to these NGOs, these same NGOs then go and claim that the building has been hijacked by some criminal who they don’t know who it is. Usually they hide behind saying it’s a foreigner. Usually they say it’s a Nigerian.
“And what that basically means is that these new people that collect rent, they begin to put people in and they inform these people, listen, you don’t need to sign a contract, go into the building and we’ll collect rental from you. The rentals are this amount and every month we’ll come and collect rental. If you don’t give us rent, we’ll kick you out. Because remember, it’s an illegal syndicate after all.
“And what they do with these rentals is they begin to split these rentals among themselves. In one of these buildings, the calculations came up to five million rand in rentals that they accumulate in cash. And they split it amongst the politicians, they split it amongst these criminal syndicates at work, and they continue to do this.
“And what they do is they use NGOs as a front. They go to court as a front to say, but hold on, the building is filled with gender-based violence victims. The building is a shelter for people that don’t have any homes. And the court believes this because on paper that’s what’s written. But behind the scenes, that’s exactly not what’s happening. Behind the scenes, it’s an actual criminal syndicate that’s got people inside there that are paying rental, and things continue to function as though this building is legitimate when it’s not legitimate.
“And this is happening in over 100 buildings in the city of Johannesburg. And what usually happens is all these city officials are in on it, big people are in on it…”
Dagada now urges voters to remember the victims of the building fire when they go to the polls.
“…when it comes to voting, when it comes to election, let us remember the 70 plus lives that died. When it comes to actually registering to vote, let us remember what happened. Let us remember that these city officials that were in government getting pay-checks every single month, their blood is on the line for the people that died and lost their lives because they are to be held responsible. Let us remember that many of them came in and held talk shows as politicians and gave excuses after excuses while people actually died. And it’s important that we take this same a remembrance into the voting ballot to say these political parties that are represented in the coalition in the City of Johannesburg cannot be trusted. They don’t care for the lives of the people and they continue to do this at the expense of young people and South African citizens at large.”
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