He was reacting to a newspaper report that said entire buildings were routinely hijacked in central Johannesburg.

The report in The Star quoted a property consultant acting on behalf of 28 building owners who said that in the past three years all 28 buildings had been invaded.

The consultant — who was not named — said that in the past three years, losses as well as legal and eviction costs had added up to about R12m.

He said he had three buildings currently occupied by hijackers, and was quoted as saying that all of them were sealed and guarded.

There are fears that building grabs will harm the City of Johannesburg’s inner-city rejuvenation plans and make potential investors in the inner city nervous.

But Schaefer says Trafalgar, which manages 2400 residential units in Johannesburg’s inner city, does not have any problems.

He says that if a building is well maintained and secured, tenants in the building are "possessive" about their units even if they do not own them.

"If the tenants are not happy they will organise a rent boycott and this creates an ideal situation for hijackers to move in," Schaefer says.

He says a "scruffy, rundown" building also attracts vagrants.

Gerald Olitzki, CEO of Olitzki Property Holdings, which owns a number of office and retail buildings in Johannesburg’s inner city, says he has a "sense of frustration at the attitude of the SAPS (South African Police Service) and the authorities when they consider this (building invasions) to be a civil matter".

"Here you have a clear case of criminal conduct," he says.

"What is the difference between someone having a gun and taking your car from you, or using the same methods to take a building from its rightful owner?

"The civil remedy is very expensive and rather complicated, and it is a relatively simple matter for the SAPS to go in and arrest the culprits."

Olitzki concurs with Schaefer, saying "the better run your buildings are, and the better quality your level of maintenance is, the less likely it is that your building will be hijacked".

"Badly maintained buildings tend to by definition go hand in hand with the absence or semi-absence of the landlord.

"And of course, once the landlord is not around, the invasion is that much easier," he says.