CAPE TOWN - Isaac Simbi was cold, hungry and destitute when he arrived at Zimbabwe's imposing consulate in Cape Town. The 23-year-old illegal immigrant was stunned to find the mansion inhabited by South African vagrants, quaffing cheap wine and smoking dagga around a once grand fireplace. They stripped the double-storey house of doors, window frames, floor boards and even its staircase in an orgy of vandalism over the past few weeks, infuriating neighbours. The property in Kuyper Street in the suburb of Zonnebloem is still advertised on travel websites as a consulate.
“I came to South Africa two weeks ago to find work,” said Simbi. “I didn’t know anyone. I had nowhere to sleep, and didn’t have food. Other Zimbabweans told me about this house after doing an Internet search. They said it was the ‘Zimbabwean embassy. I was surprised to find an old building with broken doors and windows. Vagrants were drinking around the fireplace. They are all South Africans,” said Simbi, clutching his only belongings – two pillows. “I don’t have a permit. I wanted the embassy to arrange papers for me.”
The stately old home, built in 1928 and known as Fawley Towers before it became a consulate, was thrust into the spotlight recently by South African civil rights group Afriforum. The group identified it as one of four Cape properties owned by Zimbabwe’s government that could be attached to compensate South African farmers who lost land in Zimbabwe’s land-reform programme. Deeds office records, and a Cape Town municipal valuation, show the house to be worth about R1.9-million and owned by the Zimbabwean government. Local ward councillor Belinda Walker said the situation was “worrying”. Her office had alerted the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria to what was happening.
“We’ve actually done quite a lot, mainly in terms of organising metro police raids on a regular basis … to make sure people are not squatting there. The property is essentially their (the Zimbabwean government’s) property, which is being ruined. There is nothing we can do about it right now,” said Walker. Zimbabwean Embassy officials said only the ambassador, Simon Khaya Moyo, could comment or say when the consulate closed. But he was not available on Friday.
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