After a year of business rescue efforts, property developer Propertuity liquidated and sold off its buildings,
Those holdings were part of a redevelopment from Jeppe Hostel, through New Doornfontein to the edge of Hillbrow.
The area pioneered a process whose ripples are increasingly seen in dispossession and clearances across Johannesburg s inner city.
Back in the early 2010s, Blk Jks guitarist Mpumelelo Mcata was drinking coffee at a pavement cafe in the newly gentrifying inner-city area of Maboneng when two Zulu-speaking workers walked past. One hadn’t seen the new development and its hipster denizens before and was disturbed. But his friend reassured him: “Don’t worry, mfana, it’s just a movie set. They’ll take it all down again soon.”