Members of the Hout Bay Ratepayers Association were labelled "fearful white racists" who wanted to keep Hout Bay an enclave of white privilege by Cosatu on Wednesday.
This comes days after the City Council consented to withdraw from a Cape High Court battle with the association and the Sinethemba Civic Association, and agreed to stop felling trees and developing residential houses on a site earmarked for community facilities.
The city now plans to change bylaws, which will allow it to go ahead with the plan.
Cosatu and its alliance partners at Imizamo Yethu called members of the Sinethemba Civic Association "collaborators", who are being used by a "white racist clique" on Wednesday.
The trade federation also wants to "name and shame" members of the clique.
Now Cosatu is putting its weight behind the residents of Imizamo Yethu in a bid to secure the 16 hectares of land that was earmarked for recreational facilities in 1993 under a provincial ordinance.
Cosatu and the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) are seeking political intervention to nullify the High Court decision, upholding that ordinance. The court made the order final yesterday after the city "consented" to the requests of the two associations.
Residents of Imizamo Yethu argue that they were not part of the decision in 1993 which secured the 16ha of land to be used exclusively for community facilities.
Executive mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo said earlier this week the city had accepted defeat in the matter because "prospects of success were limited on legal and technical grounds".
But the residents, and now Cosatu, are canvassing political support and want Premier Ebrahim Rasool and Marius Fransman, MEC for Local Government, to support them.
Cosatu described the court decision as "sad" for the people of Imizamo Yethu.
"It is a sad day when a small group of reactionary homeowners in Hout Bay do things that undermine the goodwill being built in our nation to advance their selfish interests," said Ehrenreich.
The province, said Ehrenreich, may have been the last outpost of "apartheid", but it had now joined the rest of the democratic South Africa and should be home for all.
In 1993, 34ha of land were bought by the government for houses, but 16ha were set aside for recreational facilities at the request of the Hout Bay Ratepayers Association.
In February this year, 500 families lost their houses and possessions after a devastating fire swept through the informal settlement.
And now, three months after the disaster, Imizamo Yethu residents are still staying in public halls while others stay with their extended families.
Kenny Tokwe, a secretary for Sanco at Imizamo Yethu, said that it wanted the new houses to be built to fire safety principles, which would keep the houses 3m apart.