The three-star Bryanston City Lodge, near Randburg, is as inconspicuous as a hotel can be - but it has become a northern suburbs haunt for celebrities seeking anonymous good times.
Staff at the hotel said this week that well-known South Africans often checked in for days on end, apparently to indulge their fondness for sex and substance abuse out of the glare of the public eye.
They were "very sad" about the tragic death of popular singer Tsakani "TK" Mhinga in one of the hotel's rooms on Monday, apparently after a four-day binge.
"Why did this drama have to happen at our hotel?" asked one. "She (TK) was such a beautiful and talented girl."
Although the City Lodge group did not want to comment on the incident this week, several staffers at the hotel have recounted how they saw a "happy" and "smiling" TK just hours before her death.
An employee, who could not be named, said he delivered "wine, beer and everything" to TK and a "group of eight to 10 men" until he finished work near midnight on Sunday - barely 12 hours before TK was found dead in room 217.
She was the only woman in this group, he said.
"TK had been phoning the orders through to the bar since the afternoon. I went to the room a couple of times to deliver the drinks. Mandoza was there and a lot of other famous people I've seen on TV, but I don't know their names.
"They were all drunk, very drunk. They were singing and partying - as musicians do. They were very noisy and loud. I don't know if there were drugs. But TK looked happy, and was smiling."
When the employee left work, the party was still continuing, he said. "The next day I found out she was dead. I couldn't believe it."
Another staffer claimed TK was alive on Monday morning, when a concerned hotel supervisor had knocked on the door of the singer's room.
"The check-out time is 11am but by 12pm, she still hadn't come out of her room. When the supervisor knocked, TK answered and said she was sorry that she had overslept. She spoke through the door.
"No one saw her - they just heard her voice. She said she would leave her room so the cleaner could come in and clean it.
"The supervisor left but when the cleaner came to clean a few minutes later, she found TK dead in the bedroom. At about 1.30pm, I found out that TK was dead," she said.
TK had apparently stayed at the hotel before. "She was lovely - she didn't look depressed when I saw her on Sunday," said the employee who had delivered drinks to TK's room.
"She didn't think I would recognise her - but I told her that I liked her music and that I had seen her on TV.
"A lot of famous people come to this hotel. I don't know all their names though; all these famous people are nice to me, including TK, but none of them have ever given me a tip," he said.
Clifford Ross, the chief executive of City Lodge Hotels, said the company did not comment on the "coming and goings or activities" of its guests.
"As this matter unfortunately involves a death, it is in the hands of the police."
Mncedisi Mpofu, the 24-year-old oldest son of SABC CEO and former acting judge Dali Mpofu, booked into two rooms at the Bryanston City Lodge - 210 and 17 - the day before Mhinga checked into Room 217.
Room 217 is just metres away from Room 210.
Saturday Star confirmed on Friday that Mpofu, known for his high-profile social circle - was still staying in the hotel.
He has declined to comment on the events surrounding Mhinga's death or give reasons for why, as someone understood to be living in Johannesburg - he was staying at the hotel.
"I met up with (Mhinga) by chance that night. I am still a bit traumatised by what happened to her," he said, adding that "on the advice of others", he had decided not to say anything further on the matter.
A police official who was on the scene, said Mhinga "looked like she was sleeping".
Eddie Jenner of Mhinga's Electromode record label, told The Star that the singer sounded "sleepy" when she phoned him three hours before she was found dead.
"I didn't get the impression that she was on anything; she just sounded like she'd had a rough night," he said.
Police have said that Tsakani Mhinga was found dead in her hotel room with a sheet covering her body. The night before, she was reportedly partying with about eight other well-known people in her room.
Saturday Star's investigation has revealed that the supervisor of the hotel knocked on her room door around midday on Monday, to which a woman answered.
The woman said that she would be leaving soon and that cleaning staff could come back later. But when an employee went to TK's room around 1.30pm, she was dead - with a sheet covering her body. Allegations are that the singer had been abusing cocaine and that she could have died of an overdose.
The scenario - that she was covered with a sheet - indicates that someone was with her in the room just moments before she died. And this person could have helped to save her life as the Sandton Clinic is situated a stone's throw away from the hotel.
Trauma Doctor Ian McMillan said, if this was the case, a big factor in play is the reaction of the friends to act as "co-conspirators" in the act, in that they too have usually been partaking in drugs.
"Cocaine tends to make one paranoid and impairs judgment which leads to the friends leaving the really sick overdose victim to 'hopefully' sleep it off. There is almost no desire to go to a hospital or seek help because of the fear of not only exposing their friend but also themselves - potentially to the law ... and so she was left to die.
"Sadly, according to media reports, it appears the usual happened here - the paranoid friend or friends crept away hoping that she would sleep it off and that there would be no consequences for any of them. TK could potentially have survived if after the correct measures were taken.
"In this type of thing it is sadly all too often the human and secretive drugging nature which leads to the tragic end result," said McMillan.