The Gauteng Department for Human Settlements demolished shacks at the Denver informal settlement in Region F on Wednesday, 22 October 2025.
MMC Mlungisi Mabaso said the operation was conducted to reduce crime in the area.
The department also tried to find out who stays in the informal settlement so that it can plan for service delivery in the area.
“We learned that there are a lot of illegal activities happening here and most of the shacks are unoccupied because they are being used for criminal activities,” said Mabaso.
“We’ve got illegal mining happening here and illegal immigrants operating their businesses here, and that’s why we came with our list for us to verify occupants, especially the South Africans, so we can know who is supposed to be here.”
This comes a day after officials from the City of Johannesburg were in Alexander and Sandton on Tuesday to take part in an operation to tackle service delivery backlogs and enhance infrastructure maintenance.
The city seems to be ramping up these operations ahead of the local government elections that will take place at the end of 2026.
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