Slumlord running dozens of overcrowded communes - Star 27 March 2009

Westdene house has 64 rooms, some allow only a single mattress to fit inside

By Candice Bailey

A Johannesburg slumlord could be coining more than R1 million a month running more than 80 overcrowded communes and cramming up to 70 desperate students into a house.

However, his lucrative business may be under threat if a draft proposal by the City of Johannesburg to regulate communes and address slumlording is passed.

Dr Bagsagnani Sayyed Hoseini is involved with more than 80 houses in Auckland Park, Melville, Westdene, Brixton and Vrededorp areas. DA ward councillor Cindy Grobbelaar says Hoseini is not the only slumlord in those areas. Others own up to 20 houses and are raking in up to R18 000 a month per house.

According to an informal study done by Grobbelaar and residents in the area, there are around 84 illegal communes in the Westdene area alone. Horror stories include squashing 56 people into a 400sq m property in Fulham Road, Brixton, and setting people up in rooms as small as 6sq m each.

The Brixton woman has converted her 400sq m home into a 28-bedroom house, with two people sharing each room. Grobbelaar has labelled Hoseini as one of the worst slumlords, saying he has absolutely no regard for the law.In one house, he built rooms into a garage. In another there are illegal electricity cables.

One commune that the Saturday Star visited in Second Avenue, Westdene - owned by Hoseini - has 64 tiny rooms on the property. The large house has been built over two properties. Some of the rooms are so small that they allow only single mattress to fit in lengthways. The rooms have tiny windows shaped like the minarets of a mosque, which do not open. Room 29 downstairs has no windows, while another person is living in a room that has been converted from a shower cubicle. One of the students in the house says the room is still fully tiled like a bathroom.Single rooms are charged at between R1 600 and R1 700 while double bedrooms are R1 200 per person. Students at the commune complained about the conditions, saying it was not what they had signed up for. "It leaks when it rains. There are only two kitchens. It is horrible. We just have to survive," said one of the students, who spoke on condition of anonymity. An 18-year-old first-year student said she been shown a "nice" room in another house, and after she signed a contract, she was told that the room was taken and she had to go live in different house where the rooms were much smaller. The rooms are advertised as having DStv. But students said the DStv had been "scanning" for the past two months.

Hoseini was not available for comment as he is currently overseas. His wife, who took the Saturday Star's call and refused to give her first name, disputed that Hoseini was involved in so many houses.She initially said there were two houses in Collins Road, Brixton, and one in Caroline Street. Later in the conversation she said there were two in Caroline Street. She would not comment on how many rooms there were in the Westdene house.

Published on the web by Star on March 27, 2009.
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