Mansion turned into a crime and prostitution den

They have held a property evaluator hostage, installed a smelly generator after their power was cut off and tried to steal water from the neighbours.

Now a group of about 35 mansion invaders in the posh Cape Town suburb of Bishopscourt have finally been told to go.

The Cape Town High Court on Thursday ordered the group occupying the multimillion-rand, eight-bedroom property to leave within three months.

For almost two years, neighbours have been having sleepless nights after the house was turned into a crime and prostitution den. When the city cut off the electricity, the invaders used a generator, polluting the air with fumes.

Numerous complaints from neighbours ended with the City of Cape Town declaring the Maclear Road mansion a "problem building" under its new bylaw, which enables it to seize a building if its owner does not fix it within 30 days.

Mohammed Patel and Tshepisho Mokgorwane, the liquidators of Windflower Properties, a close corporation that bought the double-storey house, approached the high court in May to have the illegal occupants kicked out.

The close corporation's owner, Ridwaan Banderker, who borrowed more than R4-million to buy the house in 2007, defaulted on his payments.

Patel said in an affidavit that the company had tried to sell the house.

He said the water and electricity had been cut off, but the noisy generator was still in use. In addition, the fact that there was no water meant the toilets did not work and that "human waste is dumped into the drains or elsewhere on the premises".

Neighbours, Patel said, "caught the occupants attempting to divert water from their property by illegally connecting to the inflow pipe where it adjoined the municipal water meter".

He said the police had raided the premises more than 10 times since October and that a property evaluator sent to inspect the house was held hostage for two hours.

After discovering that the city had declared the mansion a "problem building", the liquidators' lawyer, Sean Pienaar, filed an affidavit in which he said that the liquidators knew nothing about the declaration, which could lead to the property being seized by the local authorities and the likelihood that the liquidators will be exposed to further liabilities.

A neighbour who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals said: "I'm very pleased. I hope everybody can move forward, especially the owner of the property.

"I think all the neighbourhood will be pleased that a decision has been made.

"It's crazy. You can't just live in somebody's house for nothing - you can't do that in life."