South Africa: Tenants slate Sea Point racism

A passionate plea for tolerance and trust is being made by the landlord and tenants of a Sea Point block of flats reputed to be a den of drug dealers and prostitutes. Landlord Shlomo Bitton says pressure from a group of Sea Point homeowners "targeting" the building has brought him close to evicting all his tenants. The tenants, many of whom are refugees from the Congo, say racism and xenophobia are behind a protest last week by homeowners accusing them of selling sex and drugs. "We are surrounded by hostility and hatred. Black people kill us when we try to live with them in townships, and white people do not want us to live with them either," said Roxi Badibanja, a Congolese refugee studying electrical engineering at Cape College in the day and working as a security guard at night.