‘We don’t want coloureds here!’

(This article was sourced from IOL. Personally, it just makes my blood run cold that such blatant racism, prejudice and stereotyping still exists. We’d love to hear your comments about this – Ed)

A legal row over the sale of a Khayelitsha house has blown up into a racial war, with Khayelitsha residents stoning the home of a new “coloured” neighbour.

After a protracted legal battle, teacher Adrian Adams was due to move into the house on Monday, but residents welcomed him with a stream of abuse, saying he belonged in Mitchells Plain and alleging that coloured people would bring tik into the area.

Ownership of the house has been disputed for some time, with the previous owner, Nozibele Stamper, refusing to vacate the premises to make way for Adams.

Then on Tuesday night the animosity erupted into violence after a crowd of residents gathered outside the D-section house in support of Stamper.

When the Cape Argus team arrived at the house at 5pm, the 100-strong crowd appeared hostile, but were protesting in orderly fashion.

The team left for 20 minutes – and returned to find the windows shattered by stones. The crowd had grown to about 400.

Adams was not at home at the time.

The mob threatened two security guard Adams had hired to watch the house. He had also deployed two Doberman guard dogs.

Security guard Nazeem Isaacs, of GRD Security, said the crowd had become violent, forcing him to call the police.

“All of a sudden they started throwing stones at me and (the other guard) Mbulelo (Maswana). Everything went fine yesterday, but after what I saw today, I’m not putting my life in danger for someone else – I have children to support,” he said.

The crowd sang and jeered at a dozen police officers who tried to disperse them peacefully.

They dispersed soon after 6pm.

Adams, who had been warned of the crowd’s presence, had stayed away.

A neighbour said people were more willing to support an old neighbour than one they “didn’t care about”.

When he entered the house on Monday, Adams stood in an empty kitchen as residents hurled insults at him.

“Go back to Mitchells Plain, we don’t want coloureds here!” they shouted. Others said they feared coloured people would introduce tik to the area.

The dispute arose after the house was sold as part of a divorce settlement, with Stamper and her former husband sharing the proceeds.

But Stamper denied having received the money.

Seven months after the sale, she was still occupying the house. Then on Monday she was evicted by the sheriff of the court, accompanied by City Police.

Her belongings were stacked up on the pavement outside the house as Adams cowered inside.

“By sunset all these things (household goods) will be back in … and we will get rid of him,” one woman said.

Adams told the Cape Argus that “as a single-income guy I could only afford a lower-bond house”.

“Besides, I don’t have a problem living in Khayelitsha … I taught in Langa for years, am comfortable with black culture and even speak Xhosa,” he said.

Besides his day job as a teacher at Woodlands High School, he moonlighted as a “network marketer”, helping people start small businesses. He has clients in Khayelitsha.

He bought the two-bedroomed house for R190 000 and had it registered in his name last June.

He has been paying a bond on the property since last July although he has been unable to move in.

“I’ve gone from being credit-worthy to being blacklisted, as I pay a bond (for the house) and rent in Mitchells Plain, where I stay,” he said.

“Normally ‘There goes the neighbourhood’ would be directed at coloured and black people when they moved to white areas.

“I never thought it would be levelled at me in Khayelitsha.”

Adams said his problems had begun when Stamper contested the sale of the house after it had already been registered in his name.

She went to the Cape High Court in an effort to have the sale ruled illegal but the court ruled in Adams’s favour and issued an eviction order against her.

Stamper did not give up and appealed against the High Court ruling in a magistrate’s court.

In December she lost the appeal and the court ordered her to vacate the house on or before January 11 or be evicted on January 16.

Adams alleged that during the court case, an SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) member who called herself Mabel had phoned him to say he couldn’t move to the area because he was coloured.

Sanco’s Vuyiswa Madubela said the organisation had become involved in the issue because they felt the correct procedure had not been followed in selling the house.

“While normally a time frame of three months is given before an auction, in this case the house was sold in a matter of days,” she said.

Madubela distanced Sanco from racist statements by residents, as did ward councillor Princess Kotyi .

SA Human Rights Commission spokeswoman Judith Cohen said: “I think it’s the fear of the unknown. I can’t think of any suburbs in Cape Town that are truly representative. It’s not surprising then that people who are barrier-breakers are confronted by these stereotypes.”