Anxiety as indigenes kick against location of Amazon’s headquarters in Cape Town

… says project desecrating ancestral lands.

By Nneka Nwogwugwu

Descendants of a Riverside green space, an area approved by the South African government for the construction of Africa’s headquarters of the online retail giant, Amazon, have kicked against the construction of the new mega development housing.

The Khoi and San peoples accused the project of desecrating their ancestral lands.

NatureNews reports that the City of Cape Town gave the approval for the construction of a new mega-development housing Amazon Inc’s new Africa base in the heart of Cape Town’s emerging tech hub.

Amazon will be the main tenant in the $280m (R4bn) River Club project that will also house residential units, office space, restaurants and a 200-room hotel.

The municipality granted approval for the sprawling multiplex to be built across 15 hectares of land over three to five years on Sunday.

However, there have been controversy over the location of Amazon African headquarters in Cape Town.

The traditional ruler of the Khoi and San peoples, Aran Goringhaicona, told AFP that, “Our heritage will be completely destroyed. This place has a great spiritual significance for us.”

Together with a group of local residents, the Observatory Civic Association (OCA), had written to the developer, Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust (LLPT), to warn the organization of their intention to challenge the project in court.

Given the problems of flooding and chronic drought in Cape Town, the opponents are also questioning the timeliness and validity of the environmental approvals signed by the city, says Leslie London, president of the OCA.

The city argues that the risk of flooding is “minimal” and that the site will be built above the 100-year flood line. Amazon, questioned by AFP, declined to comment on these developments.

Africanews reports that for the descendants of the thousand-year-old inhabitants of this corner of the world, the site is the site of their struggle against colonial powers.

The first of these battles, in 1510, saw the Khoi defend the territory against the Portuguese. More recently, the site was protected by a two-year interim heritage designation, which expired in April 2020, according to the city.

In response to their agitations, the developer promised to build a cultural centre run by indigenous groups, including a medicinal garden, a hiking trail and an open-air amphitheatre. Some groups see this as a victory. “These plans put First Nations at the centre of the project, right across the street from that building everyone is talking about, the Amazon building,” says Chief Garu Zenzile Khoisan, who heads a collective of several clan groups.

But a small group of opponents who claim to be working towards better housing opportunities did not accept the offer.

“Going onto someone’s sacred land and building on it under the guise of creating jobs is a bit of a twist,” said Tauriq Jenkins of Goringhaicona Council. “You’re going to provide jobs for the Khoi San by asking them to dig up the graves of their ancestors?”

The project plans to create more than 5,000 jobs during construction, according to the promoter, and then some 860 when it is up and running.