A raging racial war has intensified within the community of Schoemansville in Hartbeespoort where Afrikaans-speaking people are accused of attempting to drive out black people who are setting up businesses there.
This after two black-owned properties having been set on fire recently with the latest having been burned to the ground on Monday this week.
The area, which is predominantly white, has attracted a number of people from previously disadvantaged communities to start businesses. However, this has also given rise to racial tensions from some of the white communities and over the years, the area has witnessed ugly racial confrontations.
The latest victim is businessman Thabiso Mathibedi. who found his resort, Bubbles, which he started building in 2018, engulfed in flames after warnings from the white community for him to pack up and go in a clear case of arson.
Speaking exclusively to The Star, Mathibedi said he had noticed a strange man and a younger man fishing in his property and reprimanded them to leave the property.
Little did he know, he said, that they had come to stake out the property.
“I could sense that they were up to something. We caught them a couple of times... and the one time I caught them feeding my dogs… Meaning they had been feeding dogs for a while. I only realised that they were building a relationship with my dogs and one week later, I received a call from my wife that my resort was on fire.
“There was a blazing fire and I realised that there were chemicals that were sprayed in the structure. When the fire brigade came, the structure was burnt to the ground,” he said.
Police confirmed that they were investigating a case of arson.
Mathibedi added that it was a racial incident, because there were more in the area.
He said police were also investigating another arson case across the dam where a restaurant owned by a black lady was also burned last month.
He said although black business owners in the area have had, for years, endured the abuse, he was not going anywhere, instead he would rebuild.
“It has been hell because the white community here feel we don’t belong here…They were clear that as a black person I’m not wanted on the dam and that there was no way that I was going to build here. I did it anyway,” he told The Star.
He said even the community newspaper, known to The Star, allegedly ran defamatory articles insinuating that he was going to build a water park.
“…and the second article was that it was a land grab, the third article was insinuating that it was corruption because my partner is a daughter of a well-known politician. I took them to the press council and they had to apologise,” he said.
“When I first arrived here… It was messy. I was attacked physically on the plot. They would come and intimidate us with my workers with guns. They used to put placards and put them on my fence. Others would call me and give me threats,” he added.
Another businessman, Hartley Ngoato, who owns Legacy on the Dam ‒ another resort on the shores of the dam, said ever since the establishment of Bubbles, they have continuously been harassed by the “whites” who are against the existence of any black business around the dam.
“Last week, we got a tip-off that a group of white people residing within Caribbean Beach and Kosmos held a meeting to develop a strategy on how to destroy both Legacy and Bubbles.
“When I was given permission to occupy the land, they (the whites) came to me to ask how I got the lease. This means they don’t have permission to be there themselves. When we opened our businesses here they told us to go build in Soweto where we come from,” he said.
Efforts to reach the Kosmos Village association were fruitless.
The Hartbeespoort Community Development Initiative, a local NGO, has been at the forefront of state land transformation since 2012 and led by Mmeli Mdluli, said that it has not been an easy road to progressively bring about racial equity in terms of occupational patterns in Hartbeespoort.
“At present, black lease applicants have lodged formal complaints with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) who are investigating allegations of unfair discrimination against the Department of Water and Sanitation,” he said.
SAHRC’s Shirley Mlombo said the commission had not received a complaint of the white Afrikaans community allegedly chasing away black business owners in Hartbeespoort.
“The only complaint currently before the commission is against the Department of Water and Sanitation, relating to alleged discriminatory practices in issuing water licences in Hartbeespoort.” The complaint is still under investigation. As such, the commission is unable to comment further on the matter,” she said.
Department of Land Reform and the Department of Water and Sanitation had not responded by the time of publication.
The Star
mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za