Shacks rebuilt over pipes, and secret brothel found in Tshwane raid

A secret brothel, a tavern built over stolen water pipes and a 43-room slum that had been demolished in 2021 were uncovered during a city raid in Pretoria on Wednesday.

The City of Tshwane’s bad-buildings operation saw law enforcement and technical teams enter 139 Bloed Street and 342 Scheiding Street, where they discovered utility theft and lawlessness.

Tshwane’s MMC for corporate and shared services, Flora Monama, said officials had made it clear that the city was taking a hard line against slum lords and illegal businesses, declaring “no one is above the law”.

According to Monama, infrastructure cheating was the biggest shock of the day. “At one property, we discovered an illegal water connection that had been built over in an attempt to conceal it. This connection has since been dug up and removed,” Monama said.

Monama said at 342 Scheiding Street, city officials found a tavern operating on government-owned land meant only for houses.

“The site is non-compliant and their electricity has been disconnected,” Monama said.

The raid then moved to Read Avenue, where authorities discovered an illegal building operating as a secret brothel.

The municipality handed the operators a 21-day notice to leave.

Monama stated that as they did not want to keep returning to the property for routine checks, they were rushing the legal paperwork to have the entire building knocked down.

“We have no plans to return to this property until demolition day and we are actively working to make that happen soon. We have confiscated both the illegal water and electricity connections. No one is above the law, and we are putting an end to the cat-and-mouse game of returning to properties we have already dealt with. Law enforcement is here to stay,” said Monama.

Authorities found a crowded, unauthorised network of 43 rooms at 139 Bloed Street.

Monama said landlords were renting the rooms out to desperate tenants for between R1,200 and R1,800 a month.

“These illegal structures were demolished in 2021. They have unfortunately been rebuilt.”

The city issued a formal violation notice to the owner and immediately cut off the illegal water and electricity links.

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