Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite by Cllr Bongani Nkomo here & pictures here and here
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg has uncovered a slew of neglected City owned properties in La Rochelle, Ward 57.
These Johannesburg Property Company (JPC)-owned sites should be properly maintained municipal assets. Instead, these buildings are derelict, posing serious safety and health risks to surrounding communities. Among these buildings is a heritage site, which has been reduced to a drug den and an informal shelter for a handful illegal squatters.
This complete disregard for municipal assets by the JPC is clear as the sites have been left unsecured which led to their illegal occupation, and what can only be described as their hijacking. There are no signs of municipal intervention.
These properties, meant to support local economic development or provide housing and service delivery infrastructure, are instead deteriorating under the mismanagement of the JPC.
We have reached out to the JPC to demand that they communicate their plans for these buildings, while explaining to us and the residents of Johannesburg why these assets have been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent.
We will also be asking the Executive – as we have in the past, to give us a full list of properties under the custodianship of JPC, to determine the operating status of all City-owned buildings in Ward 57.
The DA believes that the City’s property portfolio must be leveraged to unlock economic opportunities, reduce urban decay, and improve community well-being. What we uncovered in La Rochelle is at the opposite end of the spectrum from that.