Bo-Kaap residents accused of torching shacks

Cape Town - 150202 - A fire displaced many residents of "The Farm" informal settlement in the Bo-Kaap. Settlement residents say they think Bo-Kaap residents started the fire to get them to leave the area. Reporter: Chelsea Geach Picture: David Ritchie

Cape Town - 150202 - A fire displaced many residents of "The Farm" informal settlement in the Bo-Kaap. Settlement residents say they think Bo-Kaap residents started the fire to get them to leave the area. Reporter: Chelsea Geach Picture: David Ritchie

Published Feb 3, 2015

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Cape Town - About 60 shack dwellers living in the Bo-Kaap have been left destitute after their 12 shacks were torched last week, and they suspect unhappy local residents of being behind the fire.

Tensions are rising in the area, with angry residents accusing the shack dwellers of introducing a scourge of crime and drugs to the area.

The group of homeless people are now squatting under a tree on a street corner.

Bo-Kaap Civic chairman Osman Shaboodien said he had heard rumours of an arson attack, among other possible causes, for the fire that swept through the Farm, but there was no certainty.

“There’s nothing confirmed, and there’s no traces of a petrol bomb,” Shaboodien said.

“I don’t think members of the community would stoop to such a level. It’s inhumane.”

The area of land is known as the Farm, and was previously a military base along Military Road, which leads up to the Noon Day Gun. The land belongs to the Department of Public Works.

Hazel Maphomey had lived on the Farm for seven years before her shack was gutted.

“The police confirmed a petrol bomb was involved. We know people don’t want us here.”

She appealed to the Bo-Kaap residents: “Please understand what we’re going through, and just have a heart. All I want is for the community around us to bear with us. We have nowhere else to go.”

But Bo-Kaap residents meeting police, Neighbourhood Watch and ward councillor Dave Bryant on Monday night said the “squatters” had caused a scourge of crime, violence and drugs in the area, and they felt threatened in their homes and feared for the safety of their children.

“Everybody in this community is scared,” said one woman.

“I live on that corner and they are constantly targeting me.”

A man added: “They jump over the walls and washing disappears off lines.”

Another said: “They are selling drugs and poisoning our children.”

But Rose Hendricks, who has lived on the Farm for six years, said many of the people living there were not criminals.

“They tried to kill innocent people,” she said.

“Not all of us are doing drugs here.”

Hendricks burst into tears when she thought about her kitten that died in the fire.

“She was only two months old. I don’t have children, I only had that cat. I loved that cat.”

Edward Abrahams has lived in the Bo-Kaap for 50 years, and said the squatters had made life hell for residents.

“These people are not supposed to be here,” he said.

“A lot of criminals have come over from The Kraal, and drug users come up from the Parade. Our life is one big hell here.”

Abrahams said a tourist was mugged there just days earlier, in the area surrounding Signal Hill and the Noon Day Gun.

“How’s it going to affect tourism when people can’t even go up there in safety?”

The Bo-Kaap residents decided to reconvene in two weeks, when they hope Public Works will be present at the meeting.

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