31 OCT 2021 — It’s Election Day tomorrow. We vote for our local councillors. The role of the local councillor is critical to South Africa’s democracy. As outlined in the Municipal Systems Act of 2000, which lays the basis for a developmental form of local government that breaks with past exclusionary policies under apartheid, “A…
Category: Liesbeek Action Campaign
Join our protest on 12th November at Liesbeek River to coincide with the end of COP26
Dear Friends and supporters of the Liesbeek Action Campaign As you know, our nomination of the Two Rivers Urban Park for provincial heritage status in early 2020 was only processed by Heritage Western Cape in July this year. However, the HWC Council, when it met in July, agreed that the site is so important, that…
So who asked for and who approved a golf course in the first place?
26 OCT 2021 — One of the favourite tricks of the parties desperate to see the River Club redevelopment go ahead is to portray opposition to the development as wanting to preserve the golf course that was on the site. Let’s be clear about some facts here: 1. The entity known as the River Club…
Days of reckoning – we are in court November 24 and 25!!
24 OCT 2021 — After having to cross many legal hurdles over the past few months, the Judge President of the Western Cape High Court confirmed that our interdict to stop the development at the River Club will be heard on the 24th and 25th November. This will be followed later by part B of…
National Heritage Status is coming for the Two Rivers Urban Park!
14 OCT 2021 — Yesterday, the South African Heritage Resources Authority (SAHRA) visited the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP) as part of their process of grading the site as a National Heritage Resource. SAHRA’s grading follows the February 2020 nomination by the the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoi Indigenous Traditional Council (GKKITC), Observatory Civic (OCA) and the…
An inconvenient truth
17 OCT 2021 — The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) delegation had hardly returned to their offices after visiting the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP) on Wednesday, 13 October, as part of the process of considering the nomination of the TRUP for national heritage status, when they received an email from the Liesbeek Leisure…
Amazon’s Cape Town base: The battle to save South African culture
14 September 2021 Campaigners in the South African city of Cape Town are trying to halt the building of the African headquarters for Amazon. It’s a battle that pits cultural concerns against economic interests, as the BBC’s Vumani Mkhize writes. It is an overcast day in Cape Town and the scenic Table Mountain is shrouded…
The Liesbeek Action Campaign: ‘Yes, misinformation must stop, but it is not coming from opponents of the development’
By Professor Leslie London, Tauriq Jenkins and Marc Turok for the Liesbeek Action Campaign, 25 August 2021 The Liesbeek Action Campaign believes that misinformation is rife with regard to the River Club development. However, it is not the opponents of the development who are misinforming the public. This is a response to Mr Jody Aufrichtig’s…
Development of dodgy tricks at the River Club
30 June 2021 by Steve Kretzmann A defamatory letter to author MacKenzie Scott, whose ex-husband was Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, was attached to a complaint recently sent to the BackaBuddy crowdfunding platform the Observatory Civic Association is using to raise funds for its legal challenge to the R4.5bn River Club development. The Observatory Civic Association…
Cape Town’s heritage for sale: Brownwashing The River Club
If greenwashing is disinformation disseminated to present an environmentally responsible public image, what the developers of The River Club project are engaging in might be called brownwashing — falsely presenting themselves as promoters of indigenous rights. Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust claims “the majority of the Cape’s Khoi and San leaders and representatives” are in support…