A wide-ranging joint enforcement operation was carried out in Ferndale recently, bringing together officials from the City of Johannesburg’s Region B Urban Management (Crum) unit alongside the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), Social Development, Joburg City Parks, Environmental Health, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Building Control, and Development Planning.

The operation targeted a range of long-standing urban management challenges in the area.

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Teams attended to faulty streetlights, erected new stop signs, and cleared sites affected by illegal dumping. JMPD officers issued fines to motorists found parking illegally in the area.

One of the properties flagged during the blitz was in Guillaume Avenue in Bordeaux North. Officials found no caretaker present on the premises during the inspection.

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The matter has been referred to the Gauteng Formalisation and Investigation Services (GFIS), which will conduct further investigations into whether the property has been hijacked.

Property hijacking has emerged as a significant concern across Region B, with criminal syndicates known to illegally occupy vacant or poorly maintained buildings, sometimes subletting them to unsuspecting tenants.

The involvement of GFIS signals that authorities are treating the Guillaume Avenue property as a matter requiring dedicated follow-up.

The operation represents a broader push by the City of Johannesburg to deploy integrated, multi-departmental responses to urban decay, rather than addressing issues in isolation. By combining enforcement, infrastructure repair, environmental health oversight, and investigative capability in a single deployment, the city aims to maximise impact and ensure that problems are addressed holistically.

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