The auction of a landmark mountain in Cape Town was postponed after a protest by 500 residents was broken up by police with rubber bullets and stun grenades, media reported Thursday.
Angry residents who live in an informal settlement around the base of the 321-metre (1,053-foot) mountain known as The Sentinel in the Cape Town suburb of Hout Bay threw rocks at the hotel where the auction was being held.
The Times newspaper reported police fired rubber bullets and a stun-grenade to disperse the angry crowd, amid fears the poor fishing community may be booted off the land.
The mountain is privately owned, but the current owner has not been disclosed.
"There are a lot of Rastafarians in the community and they go up in the mountain. We are afraid that owners will chase the people out of here," the paper cited resident Philip Frans as saying.
Media reports have suggested potential buyers could include Bill Gates, US talkshow queen Oprah Winfrey, or South African property magnate Sol Kerzner in a deal expected to be worth millions of dollars.
Shlomo Bitton, auctioneer of the Julius Buchinsky group, said potential to develop the mountain was limited and it would still belong to a private person as it does currently.
"The owners want to sell it and somebody with a big ego will buy it," he told the newspaper.
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