Orange Grove: From promise to betrayal

Orange Grove was promised renewal. Residents were told their neighbourhood would become a model of urban regeneration, tied into the much-hyped Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor along Louis Botha Avenue.

They were promised new housing, safe streets and reliable transport. More than a decade later, all that remains are broken promises.

The Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) and the City of Johannesburg have abandoned Orange Grove, leaving hijacked homes, rising crime and a community in decline.

The story goes back to 2012, when JPC announced it would buy around seventy homes to prepare for densification. Residents who sold were promised that they could remain as tenants, have rentals managed for them, or have their vacant houses properly secured until development began.

It sounded like a responsible plan. In reality, it was anything but.

Today, at least thirty-seven of those homes are hijacked. None are secured or maintained. Syndicates have moved in, subletting properties illegally and pocketing the money. Some JPC officials were even complicit, allowing this lawlessness to take root.

The problem has spread beyond the City’s holdings, with criminals now targeting the homes of the elderly, foreign nationals, and vulnerable families.

For Orange Grove, the consequences are devastating. No rates are collected from hijacked houses, leaving the city short of revenue. Services are not delivered to the occupants, who dump rubbish in the streets and overwhelm Pikitup.

Law-abiding residents who still pay their bills are punished with higher costs and a dirtier, more dangerous suburb. Crime has surged. Drug and alcohol abuse are rife. Families who once took pride in their homes now live in fear.

JPC’s response has been evasive at best, cowardly at worst. An audit of the hijacked properties was announced, but without any real plan to reclaim them.

Meetings with residents have been repeatedly cancelled under the excuse of “safety concerns” for staff, even though community representatives continue to face hijackers without protection. When offered an online meeting as a safe option, JPC ignored the proposal.

This is not governance. It is abandonment. Orange Grove’s betrayal cannot be separated from Johannesburg’s wider collapse.

Across the city, illegal businesses flourish without licences, complaints disappear into thin air, and services break down.

The city has lost control of law enforcement, by-law enforcement, and property management. Residents are left to fend for themselves.

The cruellest twist of all is that the densification scheme was meant to support the Louis Botha BRT corridor.

Residents were told their sacrifice would make sense because new buses would run between Alexandra and Park Station. Yet almost ten years after the lanes were built, not a single bus has ever run on them.

Billions of rands have been wasted on empty bus lanes, while the community sacrificed its stability for a project that never materialised.

Behind these failures are real people paying the price. Families who sold in good faith watch as their houses are turned into drug dens. Elderly residents live in fear as syndicates seize homes on their streets.

Parents raise children in conditions of filth, crime and collapsing services. Law-abiding citizens continue to pay their rates, yet see nothing in return. 

Orange Grove should have been a beacon of renewal. Instead, it is a symbol of betrayal. The Corridors of Freedom have delivered nothing but corridors of decay.This failure is not abstract; it is the reality for people who have been let down by their city.

JPC and the City of Johannesburg must be held accountable. Hijacked houses must be reclaimed. Criminal syndicates must be dismantled. Services must be restored.

Until that happens, Orange Grove will remain a warning to every community in Johannesburg of what happens when government turns its back on its people.  

Hope is not lost for Orange Grove and all the residents across the City who have been fooled by this current government.

The DA is the only party that will implement all the promises that were made and improve living conditions by delivering adequate services. We will continue to hold this city administration to deliver on all its promises and save residents from crime, lack of services and better living conditions.

Nico De Jager, DA Gauteng Member of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Committee