Irate Hout Bay ratepayers have warned that they will strongly oppose any move by local authorities to hand over more land to the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement, with one disgruntled resident saying the area had become "Zimbabwe by the sea".
But the Imizamo Yethu Civic Association and the African National Congress hit back, saying the move would launch a formal process to alleviate the abject conditions in which the squatters lived.
As the ratepayers' association met on Monday, squatters held a placard demonstration opposing their stance.
All the roleplayers were set to meet council housing officials on Wednesday to discuss the issue.
Democratic Alliance councillor Peter Venter said that in terms of a 1993 government proclamation the ratepayers had agreed that 18 hectares of a 34 hectare site of the forestry station above Hout Bay could be used to house informal residents. But the South Peninsula Administration had failed to enforce the boundaries, and since then the settlement had swelled to cover 26 hectares.
But former Hout Bay ward councillor Dick Meter said the land was bought by the then provincial administration from the Cape Metropolitan Council for the express purpose of relocating all the squatters into one area. He said the "so-called" land invasion was in response to the council not vacating the land which still housed a fire-station, a nursery and an administration building.
He also lambasted Venter for "never consulting" with any of the area residents who are not white, and accused him of stirring the white community by using "race-hate language".
Venter accused the ANC of "driving" the land invasions.
"The ANC should come clean. There are lots of stories going around that the settlers will invade private land," he said.
This claim was labelled as "despicable" by the ANC's Cameron Dugmore, who accused Venter of "leading an agenda aimed at stopping the development of the land for housing".
"There is a definite anti-black sentiment being whipped up. We are deeply concerned at what appears to be a racist initiative by Venter and the Democratic Alliance to mobilise ratepayers against the legitimate right of the Imizamo community," Dugmore said.
He said the ANC called on all residents to support the call of the Imizamo community and asked that they not succumb to racial mobilisation.