A "God-fearing" woman and owner of one of the homes that were set on fire for being a "brothel" in Pretoria, has admitted to housing prostitutes and their pimps because she felt sorry for them.

Annemarie van Zilj, 58, of Pretoria West told Sowetan yesterday that although the torching of her house by a mob on Saturday had upset her, she did not feel guilty for allowing her tenant, known as "Paul", to turn her home into a brothel. Paul, a Nigerian national, had been renting Van Zilj's two-bedroomed house since May while she, husband and daughter, 15, stayed in the backyard cottage.

Van Zilj's home was one of two houses that were burnt by a mob of about 50 people at the weekend. The mob, mainly of South Africans, accused the owners of the two properties of running brothels and drug dens. The mob left and burnt another house in Court Street, just a few metres away from Van Zilj's.

She said she found out that Paul - whom she described as being the nicest tenant she has had - had turned her home into a brothel a month after living with them. She noticed a lot of strange men coming into the house. Her husband then bought a CCTV camera to monitor the house.

"The footage confirmed that indeed there were prostitutes living in my house. I was very angry with Paul until I got to sit down with these girls and heard their sad stories.

"They became my babies. I allowed them to stay because they did not have anywhere else to go and even if they did, they would have carried on with prostitution.

"I could not chase them away, I was scared of what could happen to them and what I would say to God should something really bad happen," said Van Zilj.

The second house in Court Street had all its nine bedrooms gutted. The mob also looted the house.

Neighbours blamed its Nigerian "owner" for causing the chaos after he allegedly chased away squatters when he took control of the property late last year.

"He replaced the locals with only Nigerian tenants in December. That's what started the mess. There was no drug dealing or prostitution in that house," said a neighbour who wanted to remain anonymous, fearing for her life.

Yesterday, the neighbourhood was quiet with random police vehicles patrolling the area.