For the Khoi and San – South Africa’s early occupants – a green strip of land near Cape Town represents triumph and sorrow.
The two tribes pushed back cattle-raiding Portuguese troops there in 1510. But, a century and a half later, it was where Dutch immigrants initiated a campaign of land dispossession.
Today it is again the site of another battle, this time over a development where construction is set to begin this month and which will ultimately be home to a new 70,000-square metre Africa headquarters for U.S. retail giant Amazon.
“This is where land was first stolen,” said Tauriq Jenkins, of the Goringhaicona Khoena Council, a Khoi traditional group opposed to the project. “We want a World Heritage Site. We do not want 150,000 tonnes of concrete.”
Previously, the 15-hectare riverside property was home to a golf driving range and popular bar, with just a little blue plaque indicating its historical importance.
It is now been designated for a 4 billion rand ($284 million) mixed-use complex that would include a hotel, retail space, offices, and residential units.
Amazon, which currently employs thousands of people in Cape Town via a worldwide contact center and data center, has been set up as the anchor tenant, with municipal officials and developers not disclosing any other major names.
While some organizations have expressed support for the promise of additional employment, the project as a whole, rather than Amazon’s particular proposals, has met opposition from other community leaders, environmentalists, and activists. They have staged marches at the property and are now threatening to sue.
According to the Observatory Civic Association, which represents a nearby residential neighborhood, about 50,000 objections to the plan have been registered with local and provincial officials so far.
Amazon’s South African and US operations refused to comment on the disagreement, directing inquiries to the developer, South Africa’s Zenprop. It then sent the inquiries to the Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust (LLTP), the entity established to build this particular project.
“There is no groundswell of unhappiness,” said LLTP’s Jody Aufrichtig, emphasising that the development went through an extensive public approval procedure.
“The handful of vocal objectors who remain, who were given fair opportunity to participate, simply do not like the outcome.”
