Durban - The Inn Town Lodge, where an alleged brothel is the subject of a Durban Regional Court racketeering, trafficking, rape and assault trial, has been converted into a shelter for homeless people and car guards.
This is according to the new manager of the establishment, who spoke to the Daily News on Wednesday.
However, he refused to disclose his name.
He said the previous manager had been fired.
“I took over the managership of this inn from December 2011. After the story broke about the place being run as a brothel the owner put me in place to oversee everything. The building was not shut down and is being run under curatorship,” said the manager.
He said the building was now a shelter for the homeless and car guards, but rooms were also being rented out to others.
“Our daily rate is R200 per day for a room and R30 per evening for those wanting to use the room as a shelter overnight. We have 28 rooms with eight of them being allocated as shelters. Those rooms have four to six bunks to accommodate the homeless.”
The manager said officials from the municipality, fire department and licensing departments had previously done routine checks and found everything above board.
A Daily News team was taken on a tour of the building, including the rooms which were allegedly used to house prostitutes, including under-age girls. The eight rooms are located in the basement of the building, which the manager claimed he did not know existed when he took over.
He also pointed out a gate that had allegedly separated the prostitutes’ rooms from the rest of the building.
Daily News