ILLEGAL immigrants, prostitutes and drug dealers lived in houses belonging to the Gauteng provincial government, and were forced by landlords to pay exorbitant rents. Some of these houses were legally leased by the government to South Africans, but the legal tenants became landlords, altered the houses and sub-let them to mostly illegal immigrants. These are the findings of the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development, which is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the 40 houses in Boksburg North.
The report compiled by Thami Mali, chief director: security management, found that the department had legally leased house 54, 14th Avenue, to a South African man who contravened the agreement. The man created extra rooms in the house using partitions. He also erected shacks in the yard, which he sub-let for R7 a month.
Most of the occupants were illegal immigrants. He paid the department R in rent. His neighbour at number 56 created five extra rooms in the house, which he rented out for between R and R1 a month and which saw him pocket R8 a month.
Again at this house, it was discovered that the lessee harboured illegal immigrants. Further down the street, at house number 82, the original lessee was no longer occupying it and the new occupant had erected six rooms inside the house and six shacks which he rented out. His tenants, illegal immigrants, paid him between R and R1 , and he collected R14 in rent every month. House No 86, according to Mali, was occupied by illegal immigrants, who fled when officials arrived.
At house No 88, the department failed to track down the legal lessee, but the occupant produced a lease agreement in his name and said he paid the department R3 in rental. The man had created seven extra rooms in the house and sub-let them. Many of his tenants were illegal immigrants who paid him between R1 and R1 a month.
