Linden Police along with health inspectors raided two houses in Windsor East on 24 February.
There have been complaints from residents about the illegal selling of alcohol and overcrowding of the houses on Alice Lane and Duchesses Avenue. The residence on Alice Lane housed 12 families and was found to be filthy and unkept. When police were called a week ago they confiscated alcohol and when they went back days later to check, the residents were found to be selling alcohol again.
There were four shacks in the yard which have illegal electrical connections. In the main house, there were six to eight people sleeping in one bedroom and the kitchen was not fit to be used because it was filthy. The owner of the house was not there but his mother-in-law said that this is a problem and that she and the owner’s wife have been pleading with him to move the tenants out. There is also a music recording studio in the same yard.”The problem with the house on Alice Lane was the illegal electrical connections and the health hazard of the cleanliness of the place,” said Const Mulamu. She said that City Power and the health inspectors will
open a case according to their findings.
The second building of flats owned by Mary-Ann Properties on Duchesses Avenue also had a problem of overcrowding. A representative from Mary-Ann Properties was there and he called the police to report a tenant who is subletting the flat to other tenants and refuses to leave the residence.
Linden Police corporate communications officer Constable Carol Mulamu said that overcrowding and sub-letting is not a criminal offence, it is a bylaw infringement.
