River Club Petition

Update on the Liesbeek Action Campaign

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…

The River Club redevelopment – the case is still ongoing

Dear Obs residents You may well have read about the withdrawal of our attorneys from the High Court review of the River Club redevelopment and what you have read is probably not accurate or is frankly misinformation. I am attaching a press release from the Liesbeek Action Campaign to clarify the situation. It is true…

No urgency to stop River Club development, rules court

Construction of the controversial multi-billion rand development at the River Club in Observatory continues despite legal challenges. This is how it looked on Friday 23 September 2022. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks/GroundUp   Steve Kretzmann – 28 September 2022 Construction of the controversial multi-billion rand development at the River Club in Observatory continues despite legal challenges to…

No! In Their Own Words: What indigenous people against the River Club development have to say

Protestors during the Liesbeek Action Campaign against Amazon River Club Development on November 12, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa. It is reported that indigenous and heritage protection and conservation groups with concerned residents have slammed the development by Amazon citing that it is a destruction of a sacred heritage site that deeply violates climate…

LLPT can’t buy truth even though they try

Professor Leslie London, chairperson of Observatory Civic Association, and Tauriq Jenkins, high commissioner of Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council We write in response to the advertorial (“LLPT files urgent leave to appeal to the SCA against the legally flawed, job killing River Club interdict,” Southern Suburbs Tatler, June 16). The Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust…

Talking points for a propaganda campaign – Liesbeek Action Campaign

Paternalism, ethnocide, epistemicide: Talking points for a propaganda campaign 16 May 2022 The Liesbeek Action Campaign condemns a seemingly coordinated effort to spread misinformation about objections to the development at the River Club, Observatory, Cape Town. Several personalities with ties to the Democratic Alliance and the Institute for Race Relations have voiced their opinions on…

Update on the River Club development

Dear friends and supporters I am writing to you to update you on the River club development 1. The Court process: – As you know, Judge Patricia Goliath delivered a groundbreaking judgement on March 18th to halt the construction at the River Club site pending the High Court review of the rezoning and Environmental Authorisations…

Why is this land so important to the San and Khoi?

Chief Autshumao explains: “At the end of the day, it’s this thing of land dispossession, which is still happening, which is still continuing. Because as a spiritual nation, us being the Aboriginal Indigenous sovereign nation people, we see this land is sacred, and there are certain places that are very sacred like all high places…

Amazon: The behemoth of corporate power

Leslie London – 23 MAR 2022 Amazon, the capitalist behemoth, takes its name from the narratives in Greek mythology of women warriors of the ancient world. Their name was later linked to the Amazon River which, as the story goes, was named after indigenous women in the region who were strong warriors, in the tradition…

We continue to campaign for human rights

18 MAR 2022 — Day 56. That’s 8 weeks since the end of the court proceedings which considered our application for an urgent interdict. We are still awaiting the Judge’s decision which we have been told is likely to be issued next week. But as many of you will be aware, Judge Goliath was the…

Our Court Interdict will be livestreamed!

17 JAN 2022 — Today we saw the appearance of poles along the Liesbeek signalling that the developers are likely to close off the original Liesbeek river from public access, presumably as a prelude to infilling the river course. The interdict hearing could therefore not have arrived a day too soon. We hope the judge…

We stand for the truth and we stand for justice

16 JAN 2022 — On Wednesday 19th January, the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council and the Observatory Civic Association will be in the High Court seeking an interdict to stop the construction at the River Club which threatens to irrevocably destroy the intangible heritage of the sacred site and contravene numerous environmental sustainability policies….

Concrete cannot be our future

22 JAN 2022 — On Friday 21st, the court heard the last arguments in our urgent interdict application to stop the River Club re-development. The judge was much more interventive with the legal representatives for the City and the First Nations Collective (FNC). In particular, she asked probing questions about who constitutes the world of…

Amazon – the LLPT’s ‘partner’?

20 JAN 2022 — Today was the second day of the court hearings for our Interdict seeking to halt the ongoing construction at the River Club. It was filled with presentation by Counsel for the developers, LLPT, and by counsel for the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning who awarded the Environmental Authorisation, over-riding…

First day of the court case seeking an interdict

19 JAN 2022 — Today was our first day in court. After a long delay, it was a relief to get to court. Our legal team was led by Advocate Alan Dodson because the advocate originally scheduled to represent us for the November dates, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, was unavailable for January. We needed to get into…

We are not optimistic; rather, we are prisoners of hope

18 JAN 2022 — Today our petition blasted through the 67 000 mark and is continuing to rise as we prepare for our days in court, starting tomorrow, 19th January. Jeff Bezos is not the only person experiencing rocket power. The difference is our petition is rocketing upward because it is driven by people power,…

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…

We Go to Court!

2 AUG 2021 —  Press Release – Monday 2 August 2021: Goringhaicona Khoi-Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council and Observatory Civic Association serve notice on the Liesbeek Leisure Property Trust and the City of Cape Town and Western Cape government departments that have approved the River Club redevelopment Today, the Cape Town High Court issued our papers…

The Two Rivers Urban Park is of National Heritage Significance!

23 JUL 2021 —  Yesterday, the Council of Heritage Western Cape (HWC) considered our application for Provincial Heritage Status (called Grade II status) for the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP). Our application had been pending for more than a year, during which time the developers secured approvals to proceed with the redevelopment, which we are now going…

Our application for Provincial Heritage Status is finally heard

21 JUL 2021 —  In February 2020, the OCA, along with the Goringhiacona Khoi-Khoi Traditional Council, and the Two Rivers Urban Park Association (TRUPA) applied to have the Two Rivers Urban Park declared a provincial heritage site. This was step was prompted by the extraordinary heritage of the entire area, which includes the Liesbeek River, the…

A Social Compact must be about a public, not private, benefit

24 JUN 2021 —  Today the LLPT announced news of an event featuring a so-called Social Compact between the developers and the First Nations Collective (FNC). This is not surprising though it is rather illogical. A Social Compact is an implicit agreement among the members of a society to co-operate for social benefits, for example by…

Not a Rubbish Dump, Jody.

23 JUN 2021 —  In March 2020, Jody Aufrichtig claimed in a letter to the Cape Argus newspaper that “The River Club site is in fact severely under-utilised, closed to the public and degraded, with some parts being used as a rubbish dump.” Well, the LLPT, as legally required to do, have done a faunal search and…

We should trust the science, Jody – but all of the science

20 JUN 2021 —  Today our update is focused on science and pollen. Here’s why … Jody Aufrichtig, spokesperson for LLPT, the River Club developers, published a recent Right to Reply in the Daily Maverick, dismissing criticisms of the re-development by claiming that we should “trust the science” and “trust the experts”. But what Jody really…

The People have spoken – more than 50 000 of them!

16 JUN 2021 —  Today the people’s voice was heard in Cape Town. The Voice of the Goringhaicona. The Voice of the !Aman Traditional Authority. The Voice of the Kai Korana Trans frontier. The Voice of the A|XARRA Restorative Justice Forum. The Voice of the Salt River Heritage Society. The Voice of the BoKaap Civic Association. The…

50000+ Voices Matter: Stop the River Club Development!

14 JUN 2021 —  Incredible! Jeff Bezos may be blasting off into outer space but our petition rocketed up to over 50 000 signatures in the past few days. I guess it must surely now get through to Jody Aufrichtig that a lot of people are opposed to his development. Quite a lot of people. I say that…

Amazon on the Liesbeek: A tale of two rivers

23 MAY 2021 —  It’s now clear that the driving force behind the River Club development is Amazon, the company whose profits have tripled during the COVID-19 epidemic. Since there are huge profits to be made from the River Club developments, it is money that is dictating how this development is being pushed through. Faced with…

The Amazonification of the Liesbeek River Valley

9 MAY 2021 —  It’s now no secret that Amazon are the driver behind the River Club development. Pro-development groups gush over the fact and welcome Amazon’s investment in Cape Town, but never stop to ask why Amazon has turned a sacred heritage site and environmentally sensitive floodplain into an investment opportunity when there are…