Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero led a high-impact enforcement operation at Marble Towers in the CBD on Monday 19 May 2026 alongside SAPS, JMPD, Home Affairs and municipal authorities over a R14 million debt and widespread bylaw violations. Photo: @CityofJoburgZA on X
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero led a high-impact operation at Marble Towers in the CBD on Monday alongside SAPS, JMPD, Home Affairs and municipal authorities. The building owes the city R14 million in unpaid rates, taxes, electricity and water. The owners obtained an urgent court interdict halting demolition. A butchery owner was arrested for harbouring undocumented immigrants. The matter returns to the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday.
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero led one of the most significant law enforcement operations in the inner city in recent years on Monday 19 May 2026, descending on Marble Towers on the corner of Jeppe and Von Wielligh Streets in the CBD with a cohort of more than 500 people including members of the South African Police Service, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department officers, Home Affairs officials and municipal authorities. The operation targeted one of the tallest buildings in the city over a R14 million debt and widespread bylaw violations only to be partially halted hours later after the building’s owners rushed to the Johannesburg High Court and obtained an urgent interdict.
What the City Found at Marble Towers
The 32-storey Marble Towers building, built in 1973 and originally known as the Sanlam Centre, has become a focal point of the city’s inner-city reclamation drive. Morero and his team found a catalogue of serious violations during the operation. People were found living in the same spaces where they work, a situation the mayor described as unacceptable. Illegal structures had been erected throughout the building and its surrounds without building plans or approvals. City Power officials disconnected electricity to the building. Joburg Water officials removed illegal water connections.
A butchery owner operating within the building was arrested on charges of harbouring undocumented immigrants during the operation. The JMPD and immigration authorities also separately apprehended five undocumented foreign nationals found in possession of fraudulent immigration documents during a compliance operation at a supermarket in the inner city on the same day.
Many of the people who work and sell from Marble Towers ran away from police when officers stormed the building to conduct disconnection operations.
R14 Million Debt to the City
The City of Johannesburg confirmed that Marble Towers owes the municipality R14 million in unpaid rates, taxes, electricity and water charges. The city’s legal counsel Segala Malahlela confirmed the debt at the site. The R14 million figure represents one of the most significant outstanding municipal debts linked to a single building in the current inner-city enforcement campaign.
Morero said the city had discovered widespread illegal activity around Marble Towers during a walkabout inspection conducted the previous week. The mayor had subsequently written to the South African National Defence Force requesting backup assistance for Monday’s operation, citing concerns about possible resistance from illegal traders operating at the building. “We are reclaiming the inner city, precinct by precinct,” Morero said. “What we started in De Villiers Street last year has now moved to Small Street, and this operation will continue throughout Johannesburg. This is not a once-off intervention.”
Owners Rush to Court — Demolition Halted
As city officials and law enforcement teams moved to demolish illegal structures at the building, the owners of Marble Towers filed an urgent application at the Johannesburg High Court seeking an interdict to stop the demolition. The court granted a temporary halt to the demolition component of the operation while the legal arguments were heard.
Malahlela confirmed the city’s position at the site. “We made an undertaking with the judge not to demolish anything, but to continue with our other law enforcement work. We will be in court again at around 10am to argue the matter,” he said. “They do not want us to remove the containers and shacks in and around Marble Towers and the High Court precinct, but the city’s view is that this illegality and unlawfulness must stop immediately.”
Trucks and tractor-loader-backhoes stood by at the site while legal teams were in court, a visible symbol of the standoff between the city and the building’s owners. The urgent court interdict has been postponed to Wednesday 20 May 2026 for further argument in the Johannesburg High Court.
Part of a Broader Campaign
Monday’s Marble Towers operation did not occur in isolation. It forms part of a sustained inner-city reclamation campaign that the City of Johannesburg has been intensifying since the conclusion of the G20 summit in November 2025. Morero acknowledged during the lead-up to the operation that the city had dropped the ball on its inner-city enforcement programme between December and March, citing poorly managed leave schedules that affected cleaning and enforcement teams. He said the city was now making up for lost time.
The campaign has already targeted Small Street, where the JMPD enforced bylaws by removing illegal traders and demolishing illegal structures in the weeks leading up to Monday’s operation. Morero confirmed that the city intended to move to other buildings with similar issues following the Marble Towers operation, adding that the city was ready to use necessary force against anyone resisting a crackdown on illegal structures.
“By targeting deteriorating infrastructure and unsafe environments, the city is actively restoring the inner city for businesses, residents, commuters and visitors alike,” Morero’s spokesperson Khathutshelo Mulaudzi said.
What Happens Next
The urgent court interdict obtained by Marble Towers’ owners returns to the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday 20 May 2026 for further argument. The city has made clear it intends to fight the interdict and proceed with its enforcement action. Whether the court grants or refuses a further interdict on Wednesday will determine whether the demolition of illegal structures at the building proceeds or is further delayed.
The electricity and water disconnections carried out on Monday remain in place. The city confirmed that enforcement operations in other areas of the CBD would continue regardless of the court proceedings relating to Marble Towers specifically.
Editors Note The urgent court interdict obtained by the owners of Marble Towers relates specifically to the demolition of structures at the building. It does not affect the city’s other enforcement actions including electricity and water disconnections. The matter returns to the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday 20 May 2026. All persons arrested during the operation are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.