Metro Centre abandoned, costing Joburg billions while officials lease private offices

Imagine a world-class African city without a central place where its people can go for service, for connection and for accountability. Imagine Johannesburg.

For almost three years now, the Metro Centre, formerly known as Johannesburg's Civic Centre, has been abandoned and left to ruin. Daily Maverick gained access to the building and found a place of ghosts. This is the first, exclusive, publication of these images of the building’s ruin as new information has come to light of why this has happened.

We met staff who spoke on condition of anonymity and who said the lower floors of the building were occupied by homeless people – they showed us images of one homeless man who had jumped down to the ground floor after being pursued by security staff.

This was confirmed by DA councillor Martin Louw, who also inspected the building and regularly tables questions to Council about what has happened to it.

“It was evident that people had already broken into the building, stolen whatever they wanted and had even been staying there.”

What used to be an information services building is a putrid wreck of old wiring, ripped up and raided equipment, and is permeated by the smell of fresh urine. What used to be the City’s technology nerve-centre is now an abandoned ruin, you walk in at your peril. How did this come to be?

In 2023, the former CEO of the Johannesburg Property Company, Helen Botes, sent out an instruction that the building should be shuttered after two fires that were regarded by councillors and staff as suspicious. One was in the information systems building located outside the main centre. The other was in a basement.

On receipt of her memo, staff pushed back their chairs and left. In three years, the Johannesburg Property Company, the steward of the City’s property portfolio, has allowed the city's civic centre to go to ruin. Botes resigned to evade a delinquent director lawsuit being waged against her by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa). She is also the most senior official found to be in dereliction of duty in relation to the Usindiso fire at Albert Street where a Johannesburg Property Company building caught alight, and in which 77 people died.

These images tell the full story of a similar dereliction, but at the city's administrative heart.

The shuttering of Metro Centre is already costing the city billions of rand a year in expensive private sector property leases, new furniture and equipment leases, as reported here.

Read more: City cuts off electricity and water to Joburg mayor’s expensive leased office — because of non-payment

A new lease of a Newtown building that could cost up to R1-billion over its lifespan was signed late last year, effective January 2026. Johannesburg is debt-dependent. The City says it will be much less.

Until recently, none of the Metro Centre furniture had been moved. We witnessed modern printers and other state-of-the-art equipment abandoned. Citizens pay the price of the metro centre abandonment and leasing in rates and utility charges that far outstrip the official inflation rate of 3%.

“The furniture belonging to the departments that are now based in Newtown has also been moved to the new building. This process will be followed with the other departments that are going to be based in Newtown,” said the Johannesburg Property Company spokesperson Lucky Sindane in January.

Because all the City’s plans had until recently been abandoned in the Metro Centre, planning and development have slowed to a snail’s pace. The plans, the City’s archive and its skeletal frame are stuck in the building and going to rot, as Anna Cox reported here. To make any changes to property, owners and developers must have their plans re-drawn at astronomical costs. The implications for growth and investment are substantial and result in more corruption. Carte Blanche has shown how officials are asking for bribes to find the plans. We found plans and drawings lying around in piles and, three years on, the plans have not been organised, archived and safely stored, according to architect Heather Dodd who has campaigned on this for years.

“The plans have not yet been retrieved from Metro Centre. These plans are the entire legal and planning history of the city. Without it, you have no record of buildings or of approvals. It’s costing people a fortune to redraw plans (because banks require them) – anything from R20,000 to R50,000.”

After the Carte Blanch exposé in June 2025, the City said: “The City of Johannesburg is taking decisive action to enhance public access to essential building plans and town planning records. Logistical difficulties and limited workforce have hampered this process.” Now, 250 days later (as at February 24), the situation has not changed. A town and regional planner showed the Daily Maverick communication in which the City confirmed that no files could be retrieved from the Metro Centre because the lifts were out of order.

The images reveal a full law library abandoned, rooms of files of documents, the City’s art collection left on walls, with the most valuable pieces removed by officials. A library like this is priceless and yet we found it dark, the librarian’s corner like a morgue, the law reports and legal texts forlorn without readers and lawyers keeping the City on the right side of the law.

Basic norms for storing a building and its contents had not been observed.

“When a building is ‘stored’, all inventory is audited, packed and carefully stored or sold; documents are sent for archiving. There are systems to ‘decant’ and store a building. A full inventory should have been done of all the furniture, fittings and equipment. All documents should have been listed, archived and then packed up and sent for safe storage in a space specialising in records and document safekeeping,” said a leading Johannesburg property specialist who has worked with Daily Maverick on the Metro Centre series, but who cannot be quoted.

“The COJ – City of Johannesburg – used to have degreed, training archive and administrative personnel to run and maintain the City’s record system. Keeping records of City growth, architectural plans and the like is a core function of local authorities to protect and record the City’s history and decision-making.”

Where do citizens go without a city hall?

Even in a digital era, people need a civic centre to go to. For billing, metering, planning, permissions and in a country like SA for anti-poverty lifelines like social relief packages and rates relief. The latest quality of life surveys reveal sinking social delivery, so citizen needs from the administration are growing.

When we visited, a man came in with an electricity meter and looked bewildered. Security staff turned him away. The entrance to the building is moribund, staffed by tired, chit-chatting private security. There are no signs, no maps and no information to tell people where to go.

Staff are scattered into 20 different buildings or on work-from-home arrangements that are never communicated to citizens. Asked how people were supposed to know where to find City services after the closure nearly three years ago, Sindane said: “We have been spreading the message through our social media pages, and we will be working with local newspapers and radio stations to inform residents on where they can find the services.”

Louw confirmed what Daily Maverick had seen after an oversight visit.

“What we did see was alarming at best, and the images reminded me of footage I have seen of the aftermath of the Chernobyl (nuclear) disaster. Some offices were locked, but many were open or had been broken into. Door handles were missing (presumably stolen), much of the furniture was still in place, and there were files and documents piled on desks or strewn all over, containing important records and personnel or personal information.

“It was like an evacuation had suddenly been declared, and everyone had just upped and left, without any proper and orderly plan or securitisation.

“Besides the desks, chairs, cabinets, cupboards, files, artworks and other general office apparatus, photocopier machines, expensive electronic equipment and even medical supplies had just been abandoned. Plants throughout the building were dying or already dead,” said Louw.

“Despite numerous follow-up meetings and questions asked about record safe-keeping, securing the building and how the public will be assisted, no satisfactory answers have been received,” said Louw, who added that “it also appears that the Metro Building is no longer insured”.

Ka-ching for cadres and other property owners

Our investigations show that while the City owns or manages 28,949 properties that staff could have been housed in while repairs were undertaken, the majority work in 20 leased buildings, with lucrative leases, at least some of which go to ANC party cadres. A Johannesburg Property Company priority, according to its annual report, is to expand its property portfolio – instead it enters leases costing the cash-strapped City billions of rand a year.

The mayor and city manager work from buildings a few blocks from the Metro Centre owned by Bayete, a company owned by Lonwabo Sambudla, an ANC party cadre and former husband of Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla. (See here.)

Bayete’s spokesperson, who does not use his name, said 50 other companies had responded to the call for design to emphasise that the party man was not favoured. The Johannesburg Property Company and Bayete said the leases were subject to a competitive bidding process.

All City entities like Joburg Water, the Johannesburg Roads Agency and the Johannesburg Development Agency are also accommodated in private sector buildings where owners, several of whom are linked to the political elite, are coining it. A whistle-blower said one lease was a “jackpot”, many a casino. For the first time, the Johannesburg Property Company has released details of who has moved where.

1. “A large number of employees that were based at Metro Centre have been moved to the Nedbank Building, Newtown. The departments that have moved to the Newtown Building include Development Planning, Group Corporate and Shared Services, Office of the COO, Department of Health and Group Communications and Marketing.
2. “The Executive Mayor’s Office, Group Legal and Contracts and the MMC of Health and Social Development offices are situated at JD House, while the Office of the City Manager is at Sappi Building. EMS (emergency services) has moved to the JMPD Head office in Martindale. Departments that have not yet been allocated space elsewhere are currently taking up space temporarily with other departments and entities; the COJ is busy with its processes to address this,” said Johannesburg Property Company spokesperson Lucky Sindane.

A whistle-blower has calculated that the cost of the Newtown building will be more than R1-billion over its term based on the building’s size, but Sindane says the City is currently leasing less space.

“Their lease rentals are sky high,” the whistle-blower said, pointing out that costs were added outside of those the Johannesburg Property Company made public or disclosed to Council.

“It must be noted that the COJ is only currently occupying 31,176m² and 1,742 parking bays. We are not utilising the entire 45,221m² at this stage and are therefore only paying for 31,176m². The lease for Newtown is NOT over R1-billion. Currently the COJ is paying R95 per square metre excluding operating costs. There is a tenant installation (TI) allowance that was provided by the landlord at R600/m². In terms of the Lease Agreement the COJ is not responsible for repairs and maintenance. These rates are market related rental rates and are in line with the Rode Report [the industry benchmark].”

When Daily Maverick requested sight of the leases citing Open Government principles, Sindane said: “Your request was for copies of the lease agreements and this request was declined as these contain protected information under Popia (the Protection of Personal Information Act).”

Asked why the City was paying billions of rand every year to lease 20 properties after the abandonment of the Metro Centre when it owns more than 28,000 properties, Sindane said:

1. “The City does not have ready-to-occupy properties suitable for office accommodation. The current properties being used to accommodate City employees already require substantial renovations; hence, the implementation of the Office Space Optimisation (OSO) programme as approved by the COJ Council for implementation by the Johannesburg Property Company.”
2. “The OSO will allow the private sector to bring expertise and capital that are currently in short supply within the City. Once the OSO is fully implemented, all City regions, including the Metro Centre, will have state-of-the-art facilities that meet the City’s current and future needs.”

A property practitioner in Johannesburg who did not want to be quoted for fear of victimisation, said the tenant installation (TI) allowance was a blank cheque that added to the value under the cover of contract opacity.

“Tenant installation is calculated as a percentage of the value of the lease – this is open to manipulation. TI may also then be amortised over the duration of the lease period. This will have the effect of further raising the rental above prevailing market rates.”

To give a sense of how lucrative property leases are: in 2020, the Sappi building was leased to the City for R672,000/month basic rental and R100,000/month for parking, with additional maintenance and renovation costs added.

No Metro Centre for the next 10 years or longer

The City has not had an administrative centre for its citizens, for three years now and it could be a decade longer if the private leases are anything to go by. An initial request for proposals sent out pitches for leases of nine years and 11 months.

Why not 10 years? Because leases then have to be registered with the deeds office and become open to scrutiny. The leases are opaque even though SA is a signatory to Open Government principles that provide for maximum transparency in the use of public funds.

“The period of 10 years to refurbish the Metro Centre is a conservative estimate. This is based on the studies performed so far and projected construction requirements,” said Sindane.

The cash-strapped City is spending millions on private security guards even after a programme to insource them (see here) to protect the Metro Centre after reports of theft and asset-stripping were revealed. A huge concrete perimeter wall is being built on the concourse, suggesting that it will take many more years before Joburg’s people get their city hall back. DM

Johannesburg Property Company's expanded right to reply by Lucky Sindane

As previously indicated, the Metro Centre is uninhabitable and in contravention of several regulations and acts. Swift action was required to protect City of Johannesburg employees and the public from further risk. A building of this age requires major refurbishment every 15 years to maintain structural integrity and operational performance. While the Metro Centre has a fixed structure, walls and a roof, compliance with broader building standards and infrastructure regulations is required for lawful occupancy.

Prescribed maintenance practices were not followed, and there is no evidence of adequate upkeep. As a result, severe leaks occurred across multiple buildings on the site. [The Johannesburg Property Company is the owner of the building and responsible for maintenance and upkeep.]

Professional assessments, including reports by engineers, Emergency Management Services (EMS) and the Department of Employment and Labour, confirmed the building’s condition. The Department of Employment and Labour served the City, through the Johannesburg Property Company, with a Confirmatory Notice requiring urgent remedial action and indicated that the matter would be referred for prosecution in terms of Section 38 without further notice.

As a precaution, the City’s leadership resolved to close all wings of the Metro Centre.

Following a prescribed Supply Chain Management process, the City entered into a 24-month lease with the Newtown Property Development Company for premises in Newtown, which now accommodate City staff. DM