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.
