About 200 shouting people from Ocean View on Friday won a fight to keep foreigners out of their community.
An ugly battle was waged between a city councillor and locals who threatened to burn down a community hall if foreigners were given refuge.
Provisions and supplies had been taken to the Ocean View community hall for foreigners displaced by Thursday night's violence in Masiphumelele.
But dancing, laughing, jeering and shouting local residents defied councillor Nikki Holderness, who tried to reason with them, and refused to leave the hall.
The shouting, often accentuated by whiffs of alcohol, was mostly unintelligible, but the message was clear - that the destitute were unwelcome.
"We don't want them here, not even for half an hour," one resident shouted while police officers kept a close eye on developments.
"We only need the place for two days," the embattled Holderness pleaded.
But, as the situation worsened, the decision was made to withdraw and begin the search for an alternative shelter for the refugees - many of whom had lost all their possessions the previous night.
"They must move immediately," one grinning man shouted.
"I don't think this is going to stop," a police officer said.
The crowd cheered and jeered as a small group of refugees sheepishly left the place where earlier they had thought they could rest in safety.
Eyeing the provisions provided by the city's department of disaster management, a woman in pyjamas joked: "Dis onse spaza (It's our shop)," while another shouted: "We will take the food."
Later, all the foodstuffs, blankets and other items that had been stacked along the walls were reloaded into the back of a truck, to more cheering from the crowd.
"Eendrag maak mag!" (Unity is strength) shouted a youngster, as consenting voices agreed to move on to the next place authorities had identified as a refugee shelter.
"We'll go take them out at the Civic Centre, too," another promised.
"Brand die goed!" (Burn the stuff)", added a teenager on his bicycle.
Asked why they did not want the refugees sheltering in their neighbourhood, one man said: "Put them where you live. Put them in the white neighbourhood."
A woman said: "When my brother's house was burnt down, nobody helped him. And, also, our kids can't walk freely in the neighbourhood, because we don't know them. They will rape our children."
At lunchtime on Friday, refugees who had been outside the police station earlier in the morning before leaving for places of shelter, had once again returned.
Chairperson of the city's safety and security portfolio committee JP Smith spoke out on Friday about the violence that has ripped the city apart and left thousands hopeless and homeless.
"It is impossible that it is a spontaneous uprising," Smith said, commenting on the seemingly orchestrated "organised pockets" of violence that broke out simultaneously across the peninsula and further afield.
"It is a vicious criminality. It is racism. Xenophobia is a deceitful euphemism." - Cape Argus
An ugly battle was waged between a city councillor and locals who threatened to burn down a community hall if foreigners were given refuge.
Provisions and supplies had been taken to the Ocean View community hall for foreigners displaced by Thursday night's violence in Masiphumelele.
But dancing, laughing, jeering and shouting local residents defied councillor Nikki Holderness, who tried to reason with them, and refused to leave the hall.
| 'Put them where you live. Put them in the white neighbourhood' |
"We don't want them here, not even for half an hour," one resident shouted while police officers kept a close eye on developments.
"We only need the place for two days," the embattled Holderness pleaded.
But, as the situation worsened, the decision was made to withdraw and begin the search for an alternative shelter for the refugees - many of whom had lost all their possessions the previous night.
"They must move immediately," one grinning man shouted.
"I don't think this is going to stop," a police officer said.
The crowd cheered and jeered as a small group of refugees sheepishly left the place where earlier they had thought they could rest in safety.
Eyeing the provisions provided by the city's department of disaster management, a woman in pyjamas joked: "Dis onse spaza (It's our shop)," while another shouted: "We will take the food."
Later, all the foodstuffs, blankets and other items that had been stacked along the walls were reloaded into the back of a truck, to more cheering from the crowd.
"Eendrag maak mag!" (Unity is strength) shouted a youngster, as consenting voices agreed to move on to the next place authorities had identified as a refugee shelter.
"We'll go take them out at the Civic Centre, too," another promised.
"Brand die goed!" (Burn the stuff)", added a teenager on his bicycle.
Asked why they did not want the refugees sheltering in their neighbourhood, one man said: "Put them where you live. Put them in the white neighbourhood."
A woman said: "When my brother's house was burnt down, nobody helped him. And, also, our kids can't walk freely in the neighbourhood, because we don't know them. They will rape our children."
At lunchtime on Friday, refugees who had been outside the police station earlier in the morning before leaving for places of shelter, had once again returned.
Chairperson of the city's safety and security portfolio committee JP Smith spoke out on Friday about the violence that has ripped the city apart and left thousands hopeless and homeless.
"It is impossible that it is a spontaneous uprising," Smith said, commenting on the seemingly orchestrated "organised pockets" of violence that broke out simultaneously across the peninsula and further afield.
"It is a vicious criminality. It is racism. Xenophobia is a deceitful euphemism." - Cape Argus
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