This weekend was Heritage Weekend. It’s a time for South Africans to celebrate their diverse cultures and histories and come together to build a new shared identity. The Observatory Civic Association and the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council held a heritage circle at the Two Rivers Urban Park mound on Saturday 25th.  We started the morning by pasting to the mound 500 blank white pages, each page signifying the more than 100 signatures per page that this petition has generated – in total over 57 000 supporters.

However, the pages were left blank to symbolise how the heritage of the area has been rendered invisible by allowing the destruction of the flood plain and the infilling of a sacred river course. The blank pages also signify the attempted extermination of the Cape San by early colonists. That is why we say no to whitewashing history and why we are going to court. We want a fair process that recognises the huge historical significance of the area, it's deep spiritual value for indigeneous peoples and its important role as a greenspace for the City.

To remind you of the legal process toward the High Court Review:

(a) We submitted papers on 2 August to the High Court in support of an application to review the approvals given by the City of Cape Town and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP), along with an urgent interdict to ensure the developer (LLPT) cease their current earthworks and construction. The respondents were LLPT, the City of Cape Town, and DEADP.

(b) The respondents took three weeks to submit responding affidavits and were joined by the First Nations Collective and a consultant from SRK, the company that managed the public participation process under the National Environmental Management Act.

(c) We submitted our replying affidavits on 17 September, along with supporting and confirmatory affidavits.

All these documents are available here.

We are now awaiting our day in court, which we hope will finally put a stop to the rampant rush with which LLPT is attempting to create irrevocable facts on the ground, by building as fast as they can. We anticipate that the interdict hearing will happen in the next few weeks.

We are holding the mayor and the MEC for DEADP accountable by taking the decisions on review to the High Court, which is the right of all South Africans.

We do need your financial support to do 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 website and follow the Liesbeek Action Campaign on twitter: @LiesbeekAction.

Now is the time to Make the Liesbeek Matter!