While the legal process unfolds, we heard today that the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) is pursuing the process to grade the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP) as a national heritage resource.  But the question is - will there be any heritage left by the time the site is declared a national resource?

The apex of the park is the land occupied by the River Club. It’s deeply ironic that while our National Heritage Agency is gearing up to declare the site part of the national estate - a national heritage resource - the developers plough ahead as fast as they can with earthworks on site. It’s now clear why the developers, the City and the Province tried to prevent Heritage Western Cape from grading the River Club site in 2018 when Heritage Western Cape (HWC) issued a Provisional Protection notice on the land. Declaration of provincial or national heritage status for the land would have made it too difficult for the City and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning to get away with their absurd decisions to permit the development.  They still pretend to ignore this fact. The mayor claimed in his responding affidavit he didn’t know about the HWC decision to refer our application for heritage grading of the TRUP to SAHRA even when his own staff participated in the HWC Council meeting where this was decided.

So, it is really now for the courts to decide on the validity of those decisions to rezone and to grant the Environmental Authorisation.

We are in the process of filing responding affidavits to those provided by the developers, the City and the Provincial Department. What is clear is that one of the main arguments they present is economic – that this development is needed because of all the "economic benefits." But its hard to fathom how those economic benefits could not be realised with a development built more appropriately linked to a development corridor at lower cost. Amazon certainly has options for other sites, so planting this development on land slated for a national heritage site, linked to the Khoi and San liberation trail, on a sacred floodplain is simply illogical. Unless, of course, you are primarily interested in money. In which case, any reason will do.

We will submit replying affidavits in the next few days and a court date will be set in the next few weeks for the hearing. The courts will judge.

We do need your financial support so please consider assisting us with the legal fees. You can contribute at our fundraising site or directly via EFT here.

You can also visit our newly launched website and follow the Liesbeek Action Campaign on twitter: @LiesbeekAction.

Now is the time to Make the Liesbeek Matter!