In 2021, the OCA, the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council and other groups and individuals opposing the River Club case formed the Liesbeek Action Campaign to support the court case and mobilise public support against the development. The campaign was relatively successful in its earlier stages, drawing in a wide range of interested activists and supportive organisations and securing a historic interim interdict against the development in March 2022. However, as OCA members know, the court process suffered some setbacks in late 2022, with the overturning of the interim interdict and the recission decision against the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council (GKKITC) High Commissioner, Tauriq Jenkins in November 2022. The response to the court outcomes created a divide in the campaign and in December, the LAC was demobilised as a result.
Given these critical circumstances, the OCA insisted on and committed to a process of mediation with the GKKITC to clear misunderstandings. The mediation took place over a few weeks in February and March. It did not achieve all that was hoped but it agreed on one outcome. Unfortunately, this outcome was not met. We had hoped that the campaign would be rescued from a capture of the social media by an individual but sadly, that has not been the case.
For that reason, any FB, Twitter or Instagram posts you might see as emanating from the LAC are not posts that are made as part of a joint campaign.
We will continue working towards the High Court Review and urge you to continue supporting the OCA in this important work.
Tauriq Jenkins’ application for leave to appeal against the recission finding against him in November was heard on Monday 17th April and we hope the High Court will allow Tauriq the opportunity to defend himself and the mandate given to him by the GKKITC in the court case, which he could not do in the recission matter heard in October last year.
The OCA will be submitting responding affidavits in part B of the High Court review in the next few weeks.