Protesters during the Liesbeek Action Campaign on November 12, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Anna Cooban – 21 March 2022
London (CNN Business)A South African judge has put the brakes on a $270 million real estate project that includes a regional headquarters for Amazon, saying that indigenous people who consider the land to be sacred must be consulted.
Judge Patricia Goliath said in a ruling on Friday that Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust (LLPT), owner of the 37-acre site in Cape Town, must stop construction immediately pending “proper and meaningful consultation” with the Khoi and San indigenous populations.
“This matter ultimately concerns the rights of indigenous peoples,” Goliath said in the ruling, which was shared with CNN Business by the Observatory Civic Association, one of the parties that brought the case, as well as the property’s developer…