Stacks of printing paper are placed against the wall while dirty clothes are tossed all over the filthy floor of the dingy bachelor flat which doubled as lab to manufacture fake IDs, passports, birth certificates, negative Covid-19 test results, gun licences and even training course certificates. 

For months, the overcrowded five-storey Anlar Court building with at least 60 units in Catherine Road in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, hid an illegal operation, allegedly used by a tenant, Bhekisizwe Mpala, to produce fake documents for illegal immigrants at a fee...