Steve Kretzmann – 24 Jan 2022
– Judge Patricia Goliath is to rule on an urgent application to stop a R4.5 billion development on the River Club site in Observatory, Cape Town.
– The development, which would include a regional headquarters for corporate giant Amazon, is opposed by the Observatory Civic Association and by the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council.
– The site at the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers is considered to be of great cultural and heritage value.
– The applicants say they were left out of consultations and only the First Nations Collective, a group supporting the development, was consulted.
– But the developers say the development will rehabilitate the area, and cultural heritage will be honoured.
– The City of Cape Town says the city cannot afford to lose a development creating more than 5,000 direct construction jobs and 19,000 indirect jobs…