Macpherson says govt braving advocacy groups’ pushback over hijacked buildings

Minister of Public Works Dean Macpherson said as much as there’s been public outcry to deal with hijacked buildings, the government ironically has had to deal with pushback from civil society groups.

He has lamented spending public money to evict people from these buildings, only to be opposed in the court applications.

Briefing the media at Parliament on Thursday on the steps being taken to deal with the matter, Macpherson said that, considering the 88,000 properties in their portfolio, the number of hijacked buildings is relatively small, at around 386.

“We have a strange situation where we are working very hard to reclaim those buildings and that land back. We are being fought at every turn by groupings, by advocacy organisations, that are happy for the status quo of those derelict and hijacked buildings to remain.”

Macpherson said he will be blamed when the next tragedy strikes at one of these buildings.

“We have to seriously ask ourselves, are we to blame for hijacked buildings when we are being opposed at every turn to try and actually secure those buildings and provide people with better accommodation?”

Despite the pushback, Macpherson said the Department of Public Works remains steadfast in reclaiming public buildings and land.

This includes the Wingfield site in Cape Town, where the tent housing more than 200 people that had been living there since the COVID-19 pandemic recently went up in flames.

But many of its former occupants still refuse to budge in the aftermath.

“We have people who are illegally in this country occupying a piece of state land unlawfully, who are being defended to do so. That doesn’t make sense. And we are having to spend money with the City of Cape Town and Home Affairs to evict unlawful people in this country from a piece of land they have hijacked.”