Pretoria – The state of lawlessness in Sunnyside stunned law-enforcement authorities and an official from the City of Tshwane town planning department, who went on a walk-about of the densely populated district yesterday.
During the inspection, they discovered 100 backroom flats, among other by-law contraventions.
The EFF in Tshwane, led by chairperson Obakeng Ramabodu, had exposed what it called a major contravention of municipal by-laws and misuse of municipal property. The “red berets” said this matter would be raised in council.
During the inspection, it was found that near Tambotie buildings on Leyds Street, there were more than 100 flats occupied by tenants who each paid between R2 500 and R3 500.
EFF members said as soon as they entered the property they felt like they were “no longer in Sunnyside, but behind a house in the township”.
The cheapest flats did not have toilets. Tenants share a group of outside toilets which had their room numbers on the doors.
The property also had two spaza shops and a crèche, and the businesses and residential units had electricity meter boxes, with dodgy wiring.
It emerged that the rooms had been there for five years. The lessee of the property was said to be a Moroccan national known only as Hassan.
The caretaker, a Sudanese national, introduced himself as Osman.
According to a tenant, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, the lessee had an agreement with the City of Tshwane for 20 years.
“There are so many rooms here that this man could be making almost half a million a month when we combine everything. Imagine if only 100 doors paid just the minimum, which is R2 500. That is R250 000, but people pay more than that.
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“They have so many tenants they had to put signs all over the property urging tenants not to pay in cash to any person unless they go to the office and get a receipt as proof of payment.”
Another tenant said: “This is not even a good place to live. The toilets outside smell so badly you cannot eat with your door open. I think they are lucky that a lot of foreign nationals are desperate for a place to stay, so here they can stay without worrying about providing proof of income and meeting credit requirements.”
The official from City town planning could be heard confirming to EFF members and the metro police that the property belonged to the municipality, according to a map he had.
He said once a lessee added or changes the structure in the property, that automatically invalidated their lease contract. He said the matter needed to be investigated thoroughly and only then could decisions like condemning the property take place.
The City of Tshwane said on its website that land use or town planning contravention happened when a property was used for other purposes than what the zoning rights allow on the subject property.
“For instance, a property zoned as residential should be used for a family dwelling only, not for business-related uses such as a guest house.”
If a contravention is confirmed, a notice must be served to the owner/lessee to cease illegal activity within 28 days.
Ramabodu said they also established that there were many properties in Sunnyside that were hijacked, and these enabled illegal activities like human trafficking and dealing in drugs and stolen goods. He said it was shocking that these things were happening in the area, because Sunnyside police station was just around the corner.
He said he did not understand why Sunnyside was in a state of anarchy when MMCs and Cabinet ministers passed by when they went to the Union Buildings. He said they were going to open a case and deal with all matters of criminality.
