{"id":26678,"date":"2026-03-07T03:45:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/a-city-held-hostage-johannesburg-bbc-africa-eye-documentary\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T03:45:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:45:52","slug":"a-city-held-hostage-johannesburg-bbc-africa-eye-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/a-city-held-hostage-johannesburg-bbc-africa-eye-documentary\/","title":{"rendered":"A City Held Hostage: Johannesburg &#8211; BBC Africa Eye Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe  width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y-F6cFevo_M?autoplay=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>#BBCAfricaEye investigates Johannesburg\u2019s hijacked buildings, before the city\u2019s G20 summit. <\/p>\n<p>Click here to subscribe to our channel \ud83d\udc49\ud83c\udffd http:\/\/bit.ly\/subscribetoafrica<\/p>\n<p>In November 2025, Johannesburg will host a G20 summit for the leaders of the world&#8217;s 20 largest economies. This will be the first time that a G20 meeting will be held on African soil. <\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s attention will be on Johannesburg, but is the city ready?  <\/p>\n<p>Africa Eye reporter Ayanda Charlie investigates the inner city\u2019s 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.  <\/p>\n<p>Worse still, some buildings are hijacked by criminals who take control and collect rent for themselves, turning them into havens for illicit activity,.<\/p>\n<p>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. <\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u2019s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has spoken of the need to \u201cturn around\u202fthose abandoned\u202fbuildings and take\u202fJohannesburg back to its glory days\u201d but the scale of the challenge is enormous, leading many people to think his words are nothing more than a hollow appeal. <\/p>\n<p>00:00 The President&#8217;s Call to Action<br \/>\n03:00 A hijacked building<br \/>\n07:15 How did Johannesburg get so bad?<br \/>\n07:57 The Sheriff<br \/>\n09:45 Temporary accommodation that lasts 17 years<br \/>\n12:06 Meeting an ex-hijacker<br \/>\n16:45 The City Council responds<br \/>\n18:18 Illegal evictions and Operation Dudula<br \/>\n19:09 Meeting anti-eviction lawyers at SERI<br \/>\n20:28 Building at a stalemate<br \/>\n22:37 A legal eviction<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfd\ufe0f You may also be interested in watching these documentaries:<\/p>\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_34795\"  width=\"480\" height=\"270\"  data-origwidth=\"480\" data-origheight=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rogZ8BYg-kM?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=1&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_15541\"  width=\"480\" height=\"270\"  data-origwidth=\"480\" data-origheight=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qk9HEzcFiZ4?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=1&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_44000\"  width=\"480\" height=\"270\"  data-origwidth=\"480\" data-origheight=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QPB42_uLLh0?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=1&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p> \ud83c\udfa5 Check out all Africa Eye investigations here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLajyiGz4JeyO2qgCvioQO-BzP1XCajJqt<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf9e\ufe0f Watch more investigative journalism from our award-winning #BBCEye investigations team at this documentary playlist: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLz_B0PFGIn4fa8LK1lptsvoA_spfJhzda<\/p>\n<p>***<br \/>\nSubscribe: http:\/\/bit.ly\/subscribetoafrica<br \/>\nWebsite: https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/africa<br \/>\nFacebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bbcnewsafrica\/<br \/>\nTwitter: https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/bbcafrica\/<br \/>\nInstagram: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcafrica\/<\/p>\n<p>#SouthAfrica #Documentary #Johannesburg #G20 #Joburg #Hijacked #InvestigativeJournalism<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y-F6cFevo_M\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#BBCAfricaEye investigates Johannesburg\u2019s hijacked buildings, before the city\u2019s G20 summit. Click here to subscribe to our channel \ud83d\udc49\ud83c\udffd http:\/\/bit.ly\/subscribetoafrica In November 2025, Johannesburg will host a G20 summit for the leaders of the world&#8217;s 20 largest economies. This will be the first time that a G20 meeting will be held on African soil. The world\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26680,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26678\/revisions\/26680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}