After having to cross many legal hurdles over the past few months, the Judge President of the Western Cape High Court confirmed that our interdict to stop the development at the River Club will be heard on the 24th and 25th November. This will be followed later by part B of the application which will seek a review of the decisions to approve the rezoning of the site, to award the Environmental Authorisation for the development, and to reject both our appeals.

Despite notifying the developers on more than one occasion of the forthcoming High Court application, they have pressed ahead, working weekends and overtime to get their concrete in the ground – as you can see in the above photo.

However, we are confident that our case will be shown to be entirely valid. Let the justice system decide what is correct for the people of Cape Town and South Africa.

But to achieve justice for the campaign, we need your financial support to pursue this court challenge. Please consider assisting us with the legal fees. You can contribute at our fundraising site or directly via EFT here.

Meanwhile, we have upcoming local government elections in South Africa on November 1st. Our campaign wrote to 52 political parties contesting the upcoming election in Cape Town asking them to state their positions on the River Club development. 
 
What we found was the following:

Of the 52 parties, 7 email addresses provided on the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) website for the party were defunct, including that for the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Of the remaining 45 parties:

• 6 parties responded by stating they opposed the development. These included the Credible Alternative 1st Movement, the Democratic People's Alternative, God Save Africa, Khoi-San Kingdom RSA, the Land Party and the Organic Humanity Movement.
• One party responded by stating they were in favour of the development. This was the International Party.
• 5 parties noted our email and indicated they would get back to us but have not done so by the deadline requested.
• Of the parties with national representation in Parliament who received our email (the Democratic Alliance, GOOD, Economic Freedom Fighters, Vryheids Front and the United Democratic Movement), none responded to indicate their position on the River Club development while the ANC was unreachable on the email provided to the IEC. The Democratic Alliance, the party controlling both the Municipal and Provincial governments that approved the development, is on record as welcoming the announcement of the approvals.

In contrast, other groups are vehemently opposed to the development. For example, the Credible Alternative First Movement (CA1st), an organisation that models itself as serving the people, speaking truth to power, and holding those in authority accountable, issued a press release indicating their strong opposition to the development.  

They noted that “The Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP) on which the River Club is located, is an environmentally sensitive and culturally significant heritage site which is layered with a rich history dating back to the pre-colonial period. The history of the Indigenous Khoekhoe people is interwoven with the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the TRUP landscape... The site holds contemporary significance to the first nation people and their future generations as a site of memory associated with their history,  cultural beliefs, traditions and the restoration of their dignity.”

Adv. Rod Solomons, the Mayoral Candidate for the CA1st pledged that, if elected to the position of Mayor, he would withdraw the City’s opposition to our court action because “I do not agree with the decision of the outgoing Mayor, Mr. Dan Plato, to allow this development to proceed with so many voices and opinions against it.”

Heritage and the environment does mean something to some political parties.

For more information, please visit our website [LL6]  and follow the Liesbeek Action Campaign on twitter: @LiesbeekAction.

Now is the time to Make the Liesbeek Matter!