The City of Joburg Property Company has discovered several City-owned properties that were fraudulently transferred to other individuals without their knowledge or consent.
The case was first identified by the City of Joburg’s GIS Department where they track and verify all properties that are transferred so that they can update the City’s billing system to bill the correct property owners. The GIS Department then assisted the JPC by extracting transfers that occurred on the properties that are owned by the City, which are then analysed internally to check the legitimacy of the transfers.
The preliminary findings by the Property Intelligence and Asset Management Unit indicated that fraudulent documents with forged signatures, purporting to be those of CoJ, JPC and Gauteng Provincial Department of Human Settlements officials were used to fraudulently transfer the properties to other individuals.
This is not in line with the provisions of Section 14(2) of the MFMA, which governs the disposal of municipal assets.
Following these findings, the Property Intelligence and Asset Management Unit has opened eighteen (18) criminal cases with the SAPS for further investigation.
The cases were registered as follows:
Date Police Station Number of Cases
17 February 2026 Booysens 02
25 February 2026 Bramley 13
05 March 2026 Sandringham 01
11 March 2026 Honeydew 02
In addition to the criminal investigations currently underway, JPC Legal Services is currently in the High Court, within Gauteng, to obtain interdicts and court orders to retransfer the properties back to the City.
The City of Joburg Property Company remains committed to safeguarding public assets and ensuring accountability in the management of municipal property. The entity will continue to work closely with law enforcement agencies to ensure that those responsible for these unlawful transactions are held accountable.
The City also reiterates its zero-tolerance stance on fraud, corruption and the unlawful disposal of municipal assets.
