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Investigations are underway to establish why seven council-owned properties available for non-profit organisations ended up being leased to private individuals without valid documentation.

The buildings, which are situated in Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu, are allegedly being sub-letted by people "closely affiliated with the ANC and the city?s previous leadership council".

Ward councillor Marga Haywood says the discrepancies within the contracts, or sometimes lack thereof, were initially discovered in March last year.

"Investigations carried out by the city for the last year prove without a doubt that these people are there illegally. This is currently being handled by our legal department as we have been trying since then to get them out of these buildings but it has been absolutely impossible.

"Some of these illegal tenants either have expired documents or none at all and are occupying the space rent free."

She says the buildings are being sub-letted for office use by the individuals or, in some cases, to families to live in.

The buildings, which include the Hangberg Advice Office, the Green Hall, the Niall Melon Building and the Yellow Hall in Imizamo Yethu, were meant for NPOs such as the Sinethemba Civic Association which represents the residents of Imizamo Yethu and the Julia Daries Organisation which looks after the disabled people in Hout Bay and also provides them with employment opportunities, Haywood says.

"The buildings are all under the control of opportunists. We want to advertise the space to give worthy organisations a fair opportunity to apply to utilise it but these people refuse to move out.

"When the occupants were approached and requested to vacate the premises, they outright refused. Some even threatened to damage council property if they were evicted."

Good Hope subcouncil chairperson JP Smith says investigations into the property management of the area suggests the "abuse of council owned property".

"There are no records of these leases and there seems to be political interference in the manner in which they obtained the property lease in the first place."

He says once the investigations are complete, all those occupying the land may be faced with eviction.

Separate investigations into 32 of the 401 staff members of the city?s Department of Planning and Development Management are also underway after it was alleged that employees have been drawing business plans in their private capacity without permission from the city.

Checks and balances and the following of standard procedure for building plan approvals will also be investigated by an external firm of forensic experts.

Councillor Marian Nieuwoudt, mayoral committee member for planning and environment, says the aim of the investigation is to ensure good governance, ethical practices, law enforcement and to ensure that nobody was advantaged or prejudiced by the staff?s actions.

"We have taken steps to limit any negative impact on service delivery. The duration of the process and further steps will be determined by the results of the investigation."

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