Organizations of local residents and indigenous Khoisan on Sunday hailed a court’s decision to suspend construction of a complex to become the African headquarters of US retail giant Amazon in Cape Town, Africa’s legislative capital. from South.
The Observatory Civic Association, which represents Observatory residents, and the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Traditional Indigenous Council, a group advocating for the interests of Khoisan peoples, said in a statement that they would also ask the court to cancel the building permit for this project, located in the Observatory region.
The R4 billion (regarding US$270 million) project, titled “River Club”, is to create office and retail space covering 150,000 square meters of land. It is expected to lead to numerous economic benefits, such as the creation of more than 5,000 direct jobs and 13,700 indirect jobs during the construction phase, thus stimulating business development.
The Observatory Civic Association and the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Traditional Indigenous Council, however, asked the court to order an emergency suspension of the project, arguing that it risked “irrevocably destroying the intangible heritage of a sacred site and contravene many environmental sustainability policies”.
High Court Judge Patricia Goliath ruled on Friday that construction must stop immediately, as “in the absence of proper consultation, the fundamental right to culture and heritage of indigenous groups, and more particularly peoples of the Khoi and San First Nations, is directly threatened” by this project.