- The redevelopment of The River Club in Cape Town has drawn heavy criticism from lobby groups.
- The project includes mixed-use development, with residential apartments and offices, and online retailer Amazon will be the anchor tenant.
- But court papers have now been filed by the Goringhaicona Khoi-Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council and Observatory Civic Association, which have been advocating for the preservation of the land.
A court battle is looming over the controversial redevelopment of The River Club in Observatory, Cape Town.
Court papers were filed in the Western Cape High Court on Monday by lobby groups, the Goringhaicona Khoi-Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council and Observatory Civic Association, which have been advocating for the preservation of the land and for the trampling of indigenous land to be halted.
Cited as respondents in the court application are the Liesbeek Leisure Property Trust and the government departments that approved the redevelopment.
In the court papers, the groups want the court to set aside the decisions of the provincial and local government departments which gave the green light for the redevelopment.
They are also seeking an interdict against the Liesbeek Leisure Property Trust to prohibit it from undertaking any construction, earthworks or other works on the erf.
Chairperson of the Observatory Civic Association (OCA), Leslie London, said in an affidavit that the OCA believes the redevelopment will result in a permanent and irreversible loss of a valuable heritage resource.
"Many of the descendants of these groups attach profound symbolic significance to the confluence of the Black and Liesbeek Rivers (occurring on The River Club site) as a prominent marker in the lands of their ancestors, of which they were ultimately dispossessed," he said in the papers.
The Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust has proposed the construction of several 10-storey buildings and 11.7 hectares of building in the middle of a 100-year-old flood plain.
Estimated to cost roughly R4 billion, the project plans include residential, retail and commercial components, a hotel, offices, conference centre and schools.
Twenty percent of the development will be allocated for residential use, of which one fifth will be dedicated to developer-subsidised inclusionary housing. The redevelopment plans include Amazon's new African headquarters.
The Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust confirmed receipt of the notice of the court application.
"As the first respondent in the matter, the trust will oppose this opportunistic attempt by a handful of misplaced activists to put a stop to the R4.6 billion project, which will create over 6 000 direct and 19 000 indirect jobs at this time when our economy needs it most," the trust said in a statement.
It added the project would restore the degraded site - which housed a golf course, conference facilities, restaurant and bar alongside a concrete, canalised river into a "beautiful and biodiverse space".
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