Mike Brown, sick and tired of fighting with “buildings hijackers”, sold Minfield Flats on the corner of Banket and Kaptein streets to Willy Mogale earlier this year.

“But when I went to the building to inform the occupants that I’m the new owner, I was told: ‘We don’t dispute that you are the owner, but go away. We will call you when we are ready to vacate the property’,” said Mogale.

He said even contractors he sent to the building to do quotations for renovations have been chased away.

The electricity connection to Minfield is illegal, and many windows are broken. Occupants also denied Sowetan access to the building.

“My building has been hijacked, and even the law seems to be complicit in this. I went to the Hillbrow police station to open a case of building hijacking, but was told the computer system did not recognise that as a charge.

“I was advised to go to the Gauteng Rental Housing Tribunal, which failed to help me,” said Mogale.

He was then advised to open a theft and fraud case for the illegal occupation of the building and illegal collection of rent . Sowetan has a case number to this complaint.

Brown said: “I don’t want to own property in this country again. That (rental housing) tribunal is useless.”

He said he had bought the building for R80000 but spent over R150000 to get the supreme court to evict the illegal occupants. “In a couple of months, they were back,” said Brown, who also complained about the lack of help from police.

Trevor Bailey, chairperson of the housing tribunal, said: “The tribunal is unable to assist (victims of buildings hijackings) because Parliament has not empowered the tribunal to deal with such matters.”

A tenant at Minfield said: “He (Mogale) is mad. He must be drunk.”

Occupants, however, failed to identify a person they pay rent to. They claimed they were “advised by the courts not to pay rent”.

This reporter was then advised to leave immediately.