#BBCAfricaEye investigates Johannesburg’s hijacked buildings, before the city’s G20 summit.
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In November 2025, Johannesburg will host a G20 summit for the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies. This will be the first time that a G20 meeting will be held on African soil.
The world’s attention will be on Johannesburg, but is the city ready?
Africa Eye reporter Ayanda Charlie investigates the inner city’s abandoned and derelict buildings, where many people live in conditions unfit for human habitation. After decades of decay and neglect, many of these buildings lack electricity, water or basic sanitation with open sewers a common sight.
Worse still, some buildings are hijacked by criminals who take control and collect rent for themselves, turning them into havens for illicit activity,.
The BBC has been able to identify the location of 102 of these abandoned and derelict buildings, but some reports say there are up to 700, in an area of only a few square miles.
South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has spoken of the need to “turn around those abandoned buildings and take Johannesburg back to its glory days” but the scale of the challenge is enormous, leading many people to think his words are nothing more than a hollow appeal.
00:00 The President’s Call to Action
03:00 A hijacked building
07:15 How did Johannesburg get so bad?
07:57 The Sheriff
09:45 Temporary accommodation that lasts 17 years
12:06 Meeting an ex-hijacker
16:45 The City Council responds
18:18 Illegal evictions and Operation Dudula
19:09 Meeting anti-eviction lawyers at SERI
20:28 Building at a stalemate
22:37 A legal eviction
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#SouthAfrica #Documentary #Johannesburg #G20 #Joburg #Hijacked #InvestigativeJournalism
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🗞Read about this investigation here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c993k9y2l4zo
I love Africa progress, great people making great things happen
I think my President is declining to go to the Summit because of the location and the abuses in S.A.
Now that you've thrown off the yolk of the white man, you can show us all why they were there in the first place.
I think if the dwellers just tried to practice stringent hygiene measures. They would be in a better environment. You can't just go defecating everywhere upto your doorstep and expect the city council to keep you tidy.
Cry, the beloved country.
Great article. Very sad to see South Africa like this.
Blame Jan van Riebeek 😂😂
Welcome to socialism. This is your future New York.
1:16 i'm beyond dissapointed… the BBC using AI so aggresivelly? can't even find aerial images to prove your point? this is not credible…!
Ramposa is distroying SA.😢😢
. He is advising Trump 😂
Soon London, Paris and many European cities will become like this 😢😢
This is a disappointingly underwhelming documentary.
The black South Africans were better off under apartheid. There’s 5 nations in South Africa and they will eventually go to war with each other.
White Boers being robbed of their land and killed. Proper refugees fleeing real danger.
It’s hardly surprising they’ve messed up what the Boers gave them. Same in the other neighbouring countries. Before the Portuguese arrived they never even had the wheel or had reached Madagascar.
Black people can live like this. They'll vote ANC again.
Why has the BBC ignored this for the last 30 years?
Wait so by the BBC's standards and rhetoric they must denounce all these black people who are holding up signs "deport illegal migrants" as racist and far-right yea? Because that seems to be your consistent tactic back home when any English person waves their own flag and shows an ounce of care for their own country.
Dear South Africans, politicians are the scum of the earth, they will tell you every lie to keep power, while fuelling their own greed and lavish lifestyle of the back of you
The BBC are the state progandists of Britain, they are cut from the same cloth as the politicians. Protectors of pedophiles, the chauffer's to Jimmy Savile
Is Ramaphosa not seeing this, why God why? I'm hurting cos I love my country
Take note, owned by the city aka the government.
These abandoned buildings have been vacant for several years. Now Ramaphosa is saying "they need to be turned in accommodation for people". Why now? Why not sooner?
As a South African, this is not new. Its been like this since the late 90s
Operation Dudula is not wrong!
😂 what did Zimbabwe before they used candle light? ….. electricity.
This will happen in SA soon.
Some cultures just have no sense of personal responsibility. No sense of work ethic. No sense of doing what’s right. No pride. No sense of maintenance or upkeep. No ability to look to the future and plan for it. No sense of doing well for next generations of your people. I hope it’s an IQ situation cuz if it isn’t low IQ it’s gotta be moral bankruptcy.
worse than Afghanistan
Omg I am so traumatised by this video
How do people live in their own filth?
Squalor
Johannesburg can easily be saved, if only the government actually did something instead of lining their pockets with taxpayer funds
Everyone knows what happened we just arent aloud to say it.
Give a white man a pile of stones and he will build a city give a black man a city…
Why is it zenophobia to get rid of people who are illegally in your country?
Can't believe a word this man says its all smoke and mirrors
Corruption and destruction. The ANC must fall. No one in South Africa is safe anymore.
when you give a developed country to a certain type of people this is what happens i hope the west is watching
Nicely done Africa.
Cannot do maintenance
It will collapse I’m afraid
Proudly brought to you by the ANC ! Abandoning its people and all its beauty for greed, taking from the poor and squandering the hard workers tax money to give them nothing in return! DISGUSTING