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Tshwane Metro lease agreements dumped at recycling plant during office move reveal council housing scandal

- Susan Puren

THE TSHWANE METRO COP CUTS a lonely figure perched on a barrier at the bottom end of De Kock Street in Sunnyside, Pretoria, captured forever in a Google Earth street-view image that was shot in 2015. He is keeping watch over a council house instead of patrolling the streets; his cop car, marked with insignia and fitted with blue lights is parked under a tree 50 meters up the road.

De Kock Street is in a quiet part of the old suburb and is lined with a row of box-shaped, solid council houses built in the 1930s. It is not at all a bad part of the capital to call home. The Afrikaans High School for Girls is a stone’s throw away, with the Loftus Versfeld Stadium and the University of Pretoria a few blocks to the East.

Finding the metro cop on guard in the Google Earth image was a sheer coincidence (call it luck if you want) because I was actually searching for a certain address; the council house at number 567 De Kock Street to be specific. It is one of many properties owned by the Tshwane Metro and usually leased to residents of the city or metro employees who qualify on the basis of their income or the need to be close to their place of work. Their rent ranges between R4,000 and R12,000 per month. The tenants also have to pay for water, sanitation and electricity in the same way that anyone else with a rental contract would be expected to do.

But the people staying at the De Kock Street address are well-off, are not council employees and have not paid rent for many years. In addition, they are still receiving VIP treatment from the Metro Police who provide them with security (see the Google Earth image), upgrades to the property (a palisade fence) and a blue light escort, whenever requested.