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`Shock-and-Awe' Campaign Planned in Johannesburg Inner City

  • Johannesburg plans evictions from ‘hijacked buildings’
  • Opposition-led city sees human-rights groups as challenge
Inner city Johannesburg.

Inner city Johannesburg.

Photographer: Mujahid Safodien/AFP via Getty Images
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Johannesburg municipal authorities are planning to clear the city center’s buildings of unauthorized occupants in a “shock and awe” campaign being considered by its mayor, Herman Mashaba, who’s already drawn criticism for calling some undocumented migrants criminals.

The plan to return “hijacked buildings” to their owners or have them forfeited to the state was discussed on Feb. 6 at the municipality-convened Inner City Partnership Forum, according to a presentation by the city’s Regulatory, Compliance and Special Investigations unit seen by Bloomberg.