Latest news with #ReclaimOurCity
IOL News
08-07-2025
- IOL News
Reclaiming Pretoria West: Tshwane's fight against lawlessness
Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya spearheads a crackdown in Pretoria West, shutting down foreign-owned businesses for bylaw non-compliance. Image: Supplied/ City of Tshwane In a bid to reclaim the city from lawlessness, Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya and the city's metro police led an anti-crime operation in Pretoria West, resulting in the closure of several foreign-owned businesses for non-compliance with by-laws. The operation, part of the Reclaim Our City campaign, was sparked by concerns raised by ward 3 councillor Malesela Rakabe about the prevalence of lawlessness in the area. According to Moya, the team took action against City of Tshwane residential properties that had been hijacked, with all of them reportedly occupied by foreign nationals. 'Every utility is illegally connected from water to electricity. The houses have been illegally extended to accommodate a tuck shop, laundry facility and an egg business,' she said. The closure of an egg depot and laundry business for non-compliance sparked discontent among a group of immigrants, who gathered to express their grievances over the shutdown. Moya said the City issued bylaw contravention notices for the two properties, and a nearby scrap yard dealership had previously been fined for constructing a wall that exceeded height limits without municipal approval. 'The people we had seen building inside ran away, from a second exit, while we asked for the gates to be opened. The yard extends onto two properties,' she said. The owners of a scrap yard for car parts in the area were found to be in violation of the law for constructing a structure without obtaining approval from the city. Moya condemned the properties in Pretoria West, saying that they exemplify the lawlessness prevalent in the city. 'The landlord of these buildings has been stealing our water and electricity for years. We have disconnected all the illegal connections. The tenants are billed monthly for water and electricity, but those funds are not paid to the city. The same landlord owns an unsafe apartment block that was built without City approval. We have received a court judgment to demolish that apartment block,' she said. The operation also revealed a property containing over 20 shacks, where tenants were paying between R1,500 and R2,000 per room. [email protected]
The Citizen
21-06-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Tshwane mayor vows to fix city's leasing system as illegal business closed during raid
Moya complained that business that were previously shut down by the City of Tshwane have reopened. While the City of Tshwane had its hands full with prolonged power outages and the switching on and off of its own reservoir, Mayor Nasiphi Moya was out on the streets this week with the Reclaim Our City campaign, which resulted in two arrests, illegal businesses being closed and notices issued. The two arrests were for illegal immigration and possession of stolen goods, while three vehicles were also impounded. Eviction notices served in Tshwane On Thursday night, Moya joined the bylaw enforcement operation in Sunnyside, with the Reclaim Our City campaign kicking off at the popular nightspot House 22. 'That club and many other businesses here have been served with eviction notices by the City of Tshwane. These businesses don't have valid permits and many are non-compliant. We were here a few months back and some of those we closed managed to reopen. We are closing them down again,' she said. Moya said the Sunnyside precinct is a strategic area that will be offered to the private sector for investment. 'All illegal businesses here will be evicted from this area. Another store we've closed. The people running this establishment supply food concoctions to predominantly Ethiopian nationals. There's no compliance with health regulations. They also don't have certification legalising the operation of a business. 'This man runs a spaza shop in Sunnyside. His visa states that he is an asylum seeker and, by law, he doesn't qualify to run a business in this city. He can only work and study in South Africa. But here he is overseeing a business operation. We've closed his store,' she added. This man runs a spaza shop in Sunnyside. His visa states that he is an asylum seeker and by law he doesn't qualify to run business in this City. He can only work and study in South Africa. But here he is overseeing a business operation. We've closed his store. @CityTshwane — Dr Nasiphi Moya (@nasiphim) June 19, 2025 ALSO READ: 'Even if it's Chinese, he's in SA' – China Town raid finds expired food, employee hiding in toilet Hijacked properties Earlier this week, Moya and her team discovered hijacked city properties in Danville, which led to the closure of five businesses. Three other premises were found to have illegal electricity connections, while one was found with an illegal water connection. ALSO READ: Pothole crisis: Tshwane mayor blames rain for municipality not fixing crumbling roads Moya said an illegal early childhood development centre, operating for 22 years from a city property without a lease, was also closed. Moya said the City of Tshwane's leasing system has not worked to benefit the municipality's income-generating capacity. 'We are determined to fix this,' she said. NOW READ: R63 million 'wasted' on Tshwane City Hall as historic site crumbles
The Citizen
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
SARS to support metro's Reclaim Our City operations
The Tshwane metro and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) recently announced their intention to form a partnership to address illicit trade. Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya said the illicit trade market has had negative impacts on the metro's communities and economy. Moya insists that through partnerships with fellow government stakeholders, the illicit trade market in Tshwane can be stamped out. 'We welcome SARS as a partner to the administration's commitment to deal with illegal businesses. Hundreds of operations have been conducted in the past nine months by the Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD), in collaboration with SAPS, the Department of Home Affairs and the Gauteng Community Safety Department,' she said. Since the start of the year, the metro has undertaken weekly by-law operations to address rampant lawlessness in and around the CBD and other parts of the metro under the operation dubbed 'Reclaim Our City'. The Mayoral Committee and the city's senior management met with SARS, led by Patrick Moeng, Chairperson of the Inter-Agency Working Group on Illicit Trade (IAWG-IT), on May 27. The meeting was to discuss programmes which would address illicit trade. The mayor said the initiative has already seen successes, and with SARS on board, it will intensify. The programmes have led to the closure of businesses and the arrest of dozens of illegal immigrants. Last week, the city uncovered an illegal paraffin distribution centre in Mamelodi that posed a danger to the lives of residents. 'This SARS collaboration will have a direct impact on the city's governance processes, help mitigate corruption, fraud and illegal practices, and improve Tshwane's economy and the lives of our most vulnerable residents,' Moya said. Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to bennittb@ or phone us on 083 625 4114. For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord's websites: Rekord East For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
The Citizen
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Citizen
Mayor leads ‘bad buildings' inspection in CBD
Members of the Mayoral Committee, led by Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya, recently conducted a 'bad buildings' walkabout in Pretoria Central. The effort formed part of the metro's Reclaim Our City (ROC) initiative, a programme aimed at exhilarating urban renewal and stomping out lawlessness across the metro. The mayor was joined by members of the Mayoral sub-committee, the TMPD and SAPS as well as the Bad Buildings Committee (BBC), a team tasked with identifying and revitalising hijacked, abandoned and derelict buildings in the CBD and surrounding areas. On May 22, Moya led the expedition to various identified spots around Pretoria Central and West, where an utter disregard for the metro's by-laws was on full display. The stakeholders convened on Sophie De Bruyn Street where they visited several spots in the vicinity including illegal scrapyards, make-shift residential premises and non-compliant businesses. 'This is one of those buildings that is owned by the city (Bloed Street), but as you can see, there are shacks inside here. I was here three weeks ago, and then, around 300 people were staying here who were served evacuation notices because it is obviously not safe for people to stay here. As you can see, these used to be shacks and now they've been dismantled, you can see that people have moved out, but there are a couple of them who are still here,' Moya said. 'We are trying to avoid a situation such as the Usindo disaster. We need to prevent it. This is one of the buildings we are targeting. For us, it is the whole block that we want to demolish here and provide this piece of land [for housing]. We do have a housing shortage in our city, and we want to deal with our housing needs and attract businesses to the city,' Moya said. The mayor said there are, however, processes that need to be followed, so the city cannot simply arrive and demand that occupants leave. ALSO READ: Tshwane looks to Expropriation Act to take over derelict buildings She described the tour as a fact-finding exercise, saying that some of the properties where these illegal dealings have been occurring were not known to the city. The mayor said the TMPD, Building Control and partnering stakeholders will decide the course of action to ensure they are not met with the same sight in a few weeks. She insisted that the previous figures the BBC have indicated regarding the identified buildings which need attention have increased after her Pretoria West visit. According to the mayor, the city intends to demolish the entire block to build a housing project similar to the Marabastad Townlands. To address homelessness, the mayor is calling upon NPOs and social organisations to join the party, insisting that the challenge with relocation is that illegal occupants may not want to conform to the rules at shelters. Environment MMC Obakeng Ramabodu said that a main issue he observed was the lack of compliance with city by-laws. 'We have a lot of by-laws that many people are not aware of, some are made known, but there are some that only exist on file, so we need to make sure that we implement them,' Ramabodu said. MMC for Roads and Transport Tlangi Mogale said that among the profiling they completed, illegal occupants consist of both South African and foreign nationals. 'We can confirm that most of the people are foreign nationals, but we do have some South Africans as well. They do form part of the indigent programme of the city, but we don't have a scouting team to find them. However, what we also advise is that they come in and work with our NGOs and NPOs, with which we have partnered and signed MOUs to assist them,' Mogale said. ALSO READ: Tshwane operation finds hijacked building with over 300 shacks Mogale said that there are a lot of buildings that the city wants to capitalise on and the BBC allows them to proceed with their plans. 'For the longest time, we haven't been playing our part as the city to capitalise on these buildings. If you go further west of Pretoria, you'll realise that we've got so many hijacked buildings which are losing us a lot of revenue because we've been sleeping on them,' Mogale said. Spatial Planning MMC Sarah Mabotsa said the demolition plans are necessary as the buildings surveyed are not suitable for human occupation. 'What we're going to do moving [forward] is that we'd like to rezone this building and convert it into low-cost housing. We're trying to address what we call 'Apartheid spatial planning', where people are living far from where they work. If we can rezone this, then people will be able to work and enjoy life here, and this is city property,' Mabotsa said. 'So many people would like to live in the CBD and they can't afford these expensive houses, that's why we've come up with this.' The stakeholders also visit the Tshwane Events Centre or Pretoria Showgrounds for a clean-up operation of this strategic city asset. The mayor said they are working on plans to host a market in the next few weeks as part of the city's economic revitalisation strategy. Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to bennittb@ or phone us on 083 625 4114. For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord's websites: Rekord East For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram or TikTok. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Eyewitness News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
People evicted from hijacked buildings in Tshwane can apply for indigent programme
JOHANNESBURG - People evicted from hijacked buildings in the City of Tshwane can apply for the indigent programme to access alternative accommodation. As part of operation 'Reclaim Our City'- city officials evicted residents from buildings that it owns in Pretoria West. Reclaim Our City is focused on addressing bylaw violations, regulation compliance and cleaning up the city. READ: Tshwane loses 34% of its water, 22% of power supply through illegal connections at hijacked buildings - Modise On Thursday, Mayor Nasiphi Moya and other officials visited the buildings in the area to finalise their plans of cleaning up the empty structures and begin demolition. MMC responsible for road and transport, Tlangi Mogale said the programme is also open to other homeless people in Tshwane. "We also have homes and NGOs in partnerships, and we have signed MOUs with the city of Tshwane, where they actually have to house these homeless people, and they do get a subsidy to help the indigent people."
