By Luvuyo Mjekula
Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato was confronted by stick-wielding shack dwellers, who threatened him over the city's failure to install electricity in their homes, when he visited Overcome Heights in Steenberg on Sunday.
Plato visited the area to discuss their demands for electricity. But the encounter was characterised by shouting and swearing.
The mayor appeared shaken as the hostile crowd of about 100 people brandished sticks and hurled threats and insults.
'You are a big liar' With a finger pointed at Plato, one fuming resident said: "Look at you, you are wearing a nice suit and you are driving an expensive car and you have bodyguards. You don't care about us."
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Another told him: "You are a big liar."
With the squatters also shouting at ward councillor Demetri Qually (DA), Plato's entourage of bodyguards and Metro officers were on the alert.
"We are sick and tired of Qually," said one resident.
The police had to restrain a drunk man who shouted each time Plato spoke.
'We are not racist' The crowd said that the City of Cape Town's failure to install electricity in people's shacks in Overcome Reserve Road smacked of racism.
The squatters, most of them black, told Plato racism was the reason that only the shacks of coloured people had electricity.
Despite promises from the city, they had been without electricity since they settled in the area three years ago.
Their coloured neighbours had electricity, they said.
Overcome Housing Forum chairperson Fawzia Cassiem said the city's failure to install electricity in the other shacks was causing conflict.
She said she had called the mayor after being accused of racism and being struck with a brick.
"We are not racist. We are prepared to help (the other shack dwellers).
Scores of people settled on the R300 road reserve about three years ago.
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