Durban - Just how 60 Margaret Maytom Avenue continued to function over the years as a “guest house” has puzzled councillors in Durban North.
The house, which stands out as run down among its upmarket neighbours, is where Siam Lee was taken from, and the place where it has widely been claimed she and her mother allegedly worked in the sex industry.
Shaun Riley, in whose ward the property falls, said he was “confused that nothing has transpired” because authorities had been aware of the place since he had brought it to their attention.
“We have done everything formal: meetings with CPF (Community Police Forum) chairman, colonel of Durban North Police, residents.”
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Riley said he had been led to believe the property and others like it were “high-profile cases, possibly not dealt with by local police, but by a special task team”.
Heinz de Boer, from the neighbouring ward, said that in 2009, he and fellow councillor Dean MacPherson had been talking about the problem of 60 Margaret Maytom Avenue, at the Durban North police station.
“We were told crime intelligence operations were watching the place. We left it at that. We assumed there was a high level of police looking into it. Throughout the years they have kept saying the same thing. Between the municipality and the police, we cannot shut them down.”
20-year-old Siam Lee Picture: Supplied
Durban North CPF chairman Hayden Searles said soon after Lee’s murder that in spite of raids on 60 Maytom Avenue, the place had never been shut down.
Municipal spokesman Mandla Nsele said the property had never been registered as a guest house.
Police had not come back with comment at the time of going to press.
De Boer said he knew of similar establishments in Somerset Park and Prestondale.
Riley said he had taken up three complaints about alleged brothels in suburban houses in his ward, and that only one had been closed down.
De Boer believes that a recent count revealed that there were between 150 and 200 people actively involved in sex work in his ward.
“There are a lot more sex workers in Gateway, in the flats,” he said.
“Where places are mixed – residential and retail – it’s not as noticeable. It’s a more used area. there is more traffic.”
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Andreas Mathios, of the Pinetown-based Neighbourhood Watch Association, said brothels in residential areas were “a huge problem”. “Drug syndicates are buying in residential areas, then open up disguised as bed and breakfasts, and they are not being controlled,” said Mathios.
He said getaway cars leaving targets of robberies often used them as a hiding place that was close by, especially in the Kloof and Highway areas. It is not an uncommon view that legalising sex work would take drug lords out of the loop, reducing prostitutes’ risks of becoming addicted and enslaved.
“It is not going to go away. It is after all the world’s oldest profession,” said De Boer.
“The problem is that the government is unable to regulate anything. They can’t get road safety right.”
Heather Rorick, of the Bulwer Community Safety Forum, added: “If they had to legalise it, nobody would police it.”
She also noted that prostitutes appearing on the streets of Bulwer, Glenwood and Umbilo seemed to be getting younger and younger.