On Tuesday, the press reported on the disruptions outside the High Court as if it was a fracas in equal measure between competing Khoi groups. This was not the case at all.

What happened was an organised and aggressive planned occupation of the High Court steps by the First Nations Collective, not to protect the heritage of indigenous people but to support the developers. Divide and rule – all by proxy.

Different people who were present, unconnected to each other, all reported to us afterwards that when they spoke to the people ‘protesting’, the ‘protesters’ had no idea why they were protesting, what Amazon had to do with the issue, nor who Tauriq Jenkins or Leslie London were, despite holding placards which purposively called us insulting names.  One onlooker, who is not involved in the campaign, said he spoke to a youth who said he came from Heideveld. “He had dropped out of school when his parents died. Couldn’t find a job. Leaders in his community had told them to come to the High Court for jobs. He got there by taxi at 9am. No one sponsored him and he had no taxi fare to get home. He’s interested in tourism & hopes for a job around that. He didn’t know what all the fuss and noise was about & had never heard of Amazon.”

The crowd were liberally provided with drinks and food on a commercial scale (rows of drinks stacked up against the wall). Jobs were being promised. And they were encouraged to manhandle the Khoi leaders arriving at the High Court by FNC leaders who were strutting around with megaphones, one of whom encouraged the crowd to chant "f**k Tauriq Jenkins."  At one stage, as can be seen in the video clip here, the ‘protesters’ attempted to entrap Commissioner Tauriq Jenkins with their banner. They also assaulted Chief Autshumao, a respected Elder of the Khoi who was surrounded, pushed around and subjected to screams of “traitor, traitor” by people who had never met him before. They were told to do so by FNC leaders. One Goringhaicona supporter saw a ‘protester’ with a knife but the person ran away when confronted by others. As our observer said, this was simply “Divide & rule dirty tactics.”

This was hooliganism under the pretense of defending Khoi heritage.  What exactly is the heritage being defended with a placard that says “don’t denaai Amazon” or one that announces “Khoi welcome Amazon?” There is no cultural heritage to be found in welcoming the biggest and wealthiest corporate transnational onto a sacred floodplain, unless you are talking about the toxic cut-throat working culture for which Amazon is fast gaining a world leader reputation.   

It was 365 years ago that the Khoi resistance began against the most powerful multinational in the world at that time, the VOC or Dutch East Indies Company. How bizarre that in the name of Khoi heritage, the FNC would in 2022 organise a ‘protest’ not to resist but to welcome the biggest and wealthiest and most behemothic corporate in the word today – Amazon, along with their local developer agents, the LLPT. The Dutch divided the Khoi at the onset of the 2nd Frontier war which paved the way for colonisation. History is repeating itself, only this time, those who wish to sell their heritage by humiliating their own have lost the spiritual fight already.

The irony, of course, is that it was the LLPT who were meant to be in court but instead their proxies 'defended' the front steps of the High Court from any alternative view of the development.  As the Heritage Appeal Tribunal lamented in April 2020, this case has been characterized by alliances involving government officials and the developers in a “policy of maintaining control over one's subordinates or opponents by encouraging dissent between them, thereby preventing them from uniting in opposition... Conservation efforts to preserve the heritage of the Indigenous First Nations' people and communities and protect their cultural rights, have been hamstrung by the 'politics of divide and rule'. In a divided and disparate society that can benefit from and become unified through knowledge of each other's cultures and heritage, the current situation is not a good scenario.”

We agree. Hurling profanties against High Commissioner Jenkins (Goringhaicona) and Regent Douglas (Kei Korana Transfrontier) and attempting to humiliate Chief Autshumao is not the language of anyone serious about protecting the intangible heritage of the indigenous people of the region, especially when such vitriol is dished up to defend big corporates such as the LLPT and even bigger transnational corporates such as Amazon. Ironically, Chief Zenzile Khoisan himself extolled the “power of activism to stop corporate greed” in October 2017 when reporting on an event at the University of Stellenbosch which celebrated resistance by indigenous rights activists “against US corporations and the government putting an oil pipeline through Indian land and sacred sites.” But here on the River Club site, in 2022, a different perspective drives the FNC’s choices.

That the FNC have chosen to side with the developers has been evident since they first emerged. The FNC only appeared in 2019, the year after after a strong and united Khoi and San opposition in 2018 at the Heritage Tribunal said an emphatic no to the development. Just as the FNC did not need to join the court case, they did not need to come to court this week since they were not having to defend themselves from contempt of court. But they chose to come defend the LLPT from charges of contempt of court. The FNC is actively promoting division rather than joining the 18 Khoi Entities who have indicated their deep concern that the development will forever destroy the last remnant of a sacred valley – all for the benefit of private developers and a small clique of 11 individuals who comprise the First Nations ‘Collective’, hellbent on paving the way for their ‘enclave’ amidst the developers’ concrete behemoths.

As you know, the developers continue to pour concrete in violation of Deputy Judge President Goliath’s interdict. The contempt of court hearing is slated for the 27th July in the High Court.

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