Africa-Press – South-Africa. The controversy over the construction of Amazon’s Cape Town office and the River Club residential and office park development found itself back in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
Tauriq Jenkins, an academic and activist for the protection of indigenous knowledge and culturally significant spaces, returned to apply for leave to appeal last year’s rescission of the order that construction stop.
He wants the Supreme Court of Appeal to consider his arguments after complaining last year he lost because judges Elizabeth Baartman, Hayley Slingers and James Lekhuleni did not let him admit many of his papers.
In a shambolic start, Jenkins was given a dressing down for arriving late and trying to give them a box full of hundreds of loose unpaginated papers when the case had already started.
He pleaded with them to reconsider, saying his life was in danger because of the case and he had been under immense stress.
Afterwards, faced also with a costs order, Jenkins said he was traumatised by facing all the senior counsel when he was just a layperson.
The judges had listened to some of his arguments but ruled against him.
In March 2022, Judge Patricia Goliath granted Jenkins, the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council (GKKITC), and Observatory Civic Association an order that the Liesbeek Leisure Property Trust developing the River Club site that the Amazon building is on, stop building to allow for further consultation on the heritage significance of the land to the Khoi and San.
After a short stoppage, construction on the R4.5 billion project resumed without the order being lifted, setting off several applications and counterapplications and accusations of contempt.
The developers said there was too much at stake to wait for consultations to be revisited, and there were veiled hints at the developers cutting their losses and “walking”.
But most astounding was an application by a faction of the GKKTIC distancing themselves from Jenkins as their high commissioner, after initially saying they supported the development.
The supporters of the development said even though the land was sacred, Capetonians needed the jobs, and they were happy with promises to memorialise the heritage of the site.
Construction of the building itself is in full swing after the November rescission, with even the making of the supports for a bridge that forms part of the developers’ guarantees to the City of Cape Town, already in place.
However, on Monday, Jenkins wanted one more shot.
For his reprise, the court was filled, with standing room only.
Baartman said she had considered moving to a bigger court so everyone could have a seat but was informed that cultural rituals had already taken place in court 18, so it would be inappropriate to move.
However, with the faint smell of burnt herbs in the air in court, and the tinkling of bells on one of the elders’ traditional clothing, matters quickly stalled.
Jenkins’ lawyer, Roseline Nyman, said they thought the leave to appeal application was going to be unopposed but were sent opposing papers only on Friday night.
The person it was sent to was on board a flight from Amsterdam to South Africa at the time, and she said nobody else had been sent the papers to begin working on them.
Advocate Anton Katz SC, who said he represented the “true GKKITC”, produced a screen grab by way of proving Jenkins’ lawyers were actually informed four days earlier of their intention to oppose.
Katz offered to read his heads of argument in opposition to Jenkins’ application, but the three judges cut him short, huddled briefly and decided they would not hear a “piecemeal” application.
So, it was postponed to 6 June, to the disappointment of those in court.
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