IN PICS | Inside Houghton property where 90 undocumented migrants were found

A hotplate stove is still warm, indicating the occupant had just left the shower room which has been converted into a living space. It is equipped with a bed, a sound bar, flat-screen TV and laptops. 

This is one of more than 20 rooms that had been turned into back rooms at the upmarket property on 10th Avenue in Houghton. The property, riddled with electricity wires in some of the rooms, is believed to have been hijacked.

Dwellers had illegally connected electricity from the street poles to the house. The wires run from the main gate, through the electricity box to the rooms in the main house and the back rooms. 

The property was deserted on Friday when Johannesburg MMC for public safety Mgcini Tshwaku inspected it. Most of the rooms appeared to be empty. 

On Thursday evening, City of Johannesburg officials inspected the property after receiving a tip-off and discovered more than 90 undocumented foreign nationals had occupied the property.

Some of them were allegedly paying R1,500 rent for a room as small as a cubicle, which has a bed and little space to walk. A curtain separates this room on the upper floor of a double-storey house from the bathroom.

When Tshwaku visited the property, a man believed to be the caretaker was seated with two children and his wife in the living room of the double-storey house.

Identifying himself as Brown Diyason, he said he was from Malawi.

“I have been here for the past five years looking after this property,” he said without revealing more information. 

When asked about the owner, he said there were five different people he worked for and they would come at the end of each month to collect the rent.

“I just stay here. Now they have cut our electricity and water, but soon they will come and reconnect it. It is always like that, but I don't know how I am going to cook today,” he said. 

In one of the back rooms, a 27-year-old Malawian woman who appeared surprised, emerged to see what was happening. She said she was in South Africa to study and had been invited to come to South Africa by her brother Diyason. 

“I do have a passport. I had just arrived this month. My brother, Brown, called me when I was at home and said there was an opportunity to study in South Africa and he has accommodation where I can sleep,” she said. 

A huge yard inside the high walls seems to have had a swimming pool, which has since been destroyed. Some of the rooms are partitioned by cardboard boxes. In one of the rooms, what appears to be the electrical mains box is loaded with electrical wires.

An online search on the property market shows the property was bought by a company in August last year for more than R6m.

Tshwaku said his inspection was part of the city’s ongoing efforts to address illegal occupation, enforce bylaws and uphold the safety and integrity of residential communities.

During his visit, officials from Johannesburg Water cut off the water connection, while City Power cut off the illegal electricity connection. Tshwaku said they got a tip-off that there was a house where there was a lot of activity with many people going in and out.

“Yesterday [Thursday], we did the oversight to check what's happening at night. It was a surprise visit. That's when we discovered they were undocumented foreigners, about 92 of them,” he said. 

He said they found that the rooms were separated using curtains and material that could be deemed flammable. “Some of the rooms of the house, like a shower or a bathroom, are converted into a room, which is a contravention of the bylaws.”

He said dwellers did not tell them who the owner was, but called someone who said he was coming to the property. He said they had been waiting for the owner since Thursday to no avail.

“If you go to the records, you'll find the house was sold in 2024. It was sold to a company. I can tell you now for free that that is a modus operandi of the hijackers.

“There are houses like this, properties and flats that are hijacked, and it's normally the NPO or the company that owns that property. We believe this house has been hijacked. We are waiting for those people to come and account in terms of what is happening here,” he said.

Tshwaku said it appeared a syndicate of hijackers was working with rogue lawyers to target properties, as most of the hijacked properties were either owned by companies or nonprofit organisations (NPOs). 

He said the city was conducting an investigation with the police. “As the city, we are looking at this syndicate. Any information we gather, we give it to the police because they have more investigative powers, and we are working with them.”

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