Cape Town mayor Dan Plato got a smack in the face during a visit to the Blikkiesdorp relocation camp this week, the Cape Times reported on Thursday.

It said the incident took place during a walkabout by the mayor on Wednesday, in which residents also swore at him and branded him a liar.

In one angry confrontation, Plato was smacked by an incensed woman as his bodyguards intervened to get her away from him.

Blikkiesdorp, named for its corrugated iron housing, is being used to house families who had squatted for almost two years on the pavement in Symphony Way, Delft.

They had been evicted from newly-built houses in the N2 Gateway project that they had tried to claim.