Simon Nare
Black tour operators have claimed that they are under siege at the Hartebeespoort Dam and have accused their counterparts of waging systematic and racist attacks to flush them out of the North West prime tourist attraction.
The operators told Inside Travel that in the past two weeks, boat clubs owned by black businesses have been torched to the ground in what they allege are racist arsonist attacks.
The latest arson attack was at Bubbles Champagne Garden along the dam’s shoreline owned by Thabiso Mathibedi who complained that this was a clear racist motivated attack to force him out of the area.
Mathibedi said this in line with threats by racist elements in the area that black business people must move “back to Soweto where they belong”.
He said black business people were not having it easy when they set up business establishments in the villages as white residents allegedly launched unwarranted petitions to block them from constructing any structures.
The petitions range from complaints of environmental violations to by-law breaches.
Yet, Mathibedi has alleged, white business owners committed the same violations with impunity and no finger would be lifted.
Mathibedi spoke of his dismay and frustration when he saw his restaurant going up in flames right before his eyes as he watched helplessly.
“All I could do was try to stop the fire from spreading to the resort. I could hear the inferno raging inside. It was like it was being propelled by something. I could smell some funny liquid from outside.
“When the firefighters arrived the whole structure was on the ground. The forensic investigation confirmed that it was an act of arson,” Mathibedi said.
He described the arsonist attacks on black businesses as a desperate act by the “racist” group after they thwarted every legal bid they had thrown at him and other black tour operators. They had tried flimsy petitions and they all came to naught, he said.
Mathibedi said he had given police investigators information about a suspicious white old man he had warned about three times not to fish near his jetty.
He said he had confronted the man in a small boat without registration, who docked at his jetty, fishing. And each time the “friendly” old man would apologise and leave. Twice he was by himself but the other occasion he was with a female companion his age, Mathibedi said and now has concluded that the man must have been studying the area because last Monday night he allegedly struck and torched his place.
North West police spokesperson Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone confirmed the Monday incident to Jacaranda FM.
“We can confirm that a case of arson has been opened. The incident occurred on Monday night, 19 August 2024. There are no arrests at this stage and an investigation is underway.”
This was the second attack in two weeks where property belonging to a black person was torched. The other was owned by a black woman who did not respond to several attempts for an interview.
Another tour operator, Hartley Ngoato, has been having running battles with white racists since he arrived in the area, and told of how cold the reception was when he first set foot there.
Ngoato, who runs Legacy in the Dam, also a boat club, told Inside Travel that as recent as two weeks ago, a meeting arranged through a WhatsApp group administered by a resident Cherry Grobler, allegedly resolved that the residents will use more aggressive means to try and push out black business people from the area.
Ngoato said this was not the first time such a decision was taken. A similar decision was taken during another adjacent village residents’ meeting.
Asked for comment, Grobler confirmed being a member of a residents association but denied any involvement in any racist campaign. She then requested that questions be sent to her but she had not furnished the answers by the time of publication.
Ngoato, a lawyer by profession, said the actions of white residents were driven by pure racism.
He said was once badly assaulted by a group of white men. He took them to court. One is already serving a three-year jail term and the other was found guilty on Thursday and the sentencing will be next month, he said.
Ngoato said a lot of white residents who were building their houses on the shoreline of the dam – which is state land – didn’t have any lease and therefore their structures were illegal.
But, whenever black businesses start building, they are told to produce risk assessment and evaluation reports but none of the white residents have done that as they didn’t have lease agreements, Ngoato said.
In one of the documents seen by Inside Travel, in a reply to a petition by white residents from the Department of Water and Sanitation, the department confirms that there are widespread violations in the area.
“To the department’s knowledge, not a single state land user of Portion 28 complies with the Peri Urban Town Planning Scheme of 1975 and the National Building Regulation and Standard Act 1977, (Act no. 103 of 1977), therefore the department will have to act against all state land users,” read the response.
It is alleged that the response scared the white residents off from pursuing the matter any further after they had complained that a black resident was not complying.
Ngoato said this was the modus operandi allegedly used by the white residents they were using to scare off black business people in the area.
“All of them, these white occupants who are occupying government land, all these things that they are subjecting us to comply with, they have never complied with,” he alleged.
He added that the white residents who act as if they are authority would demand that they must do an evaluation so they could pay market- related rent yet they had not done the same themselves. They would demand impact assessment which they themselves had not done, he argued.
‘Some of them are selling alcohol but they don’t have liquor licenses, they don’t have lease agreements. How did they get liquor licenses if they don’t have lease agreements?” he asked.
INSIDE TRAVEL
