In Feb 2020, the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council (GKKITC), the Observatory Civic Association (OCA) and the Two Rivers Urban Park Association (TRUPA) nominated the entire precinct of the Two Rivers Urban Park (including the River Club) for grading as a Provincial Heritage Site. Various factors, including, but not only, the COVID-19 epidemic, led to long delays and Heritage Western Cape (HWC) only considered the application for provincial heritage status in July 2021, the same month that the developers started construction at the River Club site. HWC immediately recommended the TRUP for grading as a national heritage site because of its importance for cultural memory and its status as a landscape of immense intangible heritage. Since national heritage is under the purview of the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), HWC referred the nomination upward to SAHRA to consider for national heritage status.
They did so in July 2021, noting that “various reports have since convinced Heritage Specialists IACom and HWC Council that TRUP is needs to be Protected as either Provincial Heritage Grade or higher. We are therefore applying for urgent grading of the TRUP, as phase 1.”
SAHRA began its investigation of the site for national heritage status in October 2021. However, it made little progress on the investigation of heritage significance of the site. As we know, the developers were briefly stopped from continuing construction by an interim interdict in March 2022 but resumed construction in June 2022, in violation of the interim interdict. Although the developers’ appeal was upheld on the 8th November 2022, that decision has now been appealed by the OCA and the related recission application has also been appealed by High Commissioner Tauriq Jenkins of the GKKITC.
While all this legal lawfare was unfolding, SAHRA has now finally initiated a process of considering provisional protection of the River Club site, holding public meetings in Observatory in November 2022 to verify the heritage significance of the site. The fact that it has taken SAHRA 16 months to act on the direct threat posed by the development to the intangible heritage of the site is concerning – particularly since the competent provincial heritage authority considered the matter ‘urgent’. For an agency charged with the promotion of “good management of the national estate” so as to “enable and encourage communities to nurture and conserve their legacy so that it may be bequeathed to future generations,” this very belated step may be inadequate. Given that “Our heritage is unique and precious and it cannot be renewed”, the ongoing destruction of the site is decimating heritage, which is framed in the National Heritage Resources Act as helping “to define our cultural identity and therefore lies at the heart of our spiritual well-being and has the power to build our nation. It has the potential to affirm our diverse cultures, and in so doing shape our national character.”
But the character we are seeing on a sacred floodplain is a 50 metre-high glass, steel and concrete behemoth elevated out of the floodlines – all to house Amazon’s new Headquarters.
The public meeting in the Observatory Community Hall was well attended by about 80 participants, mostly indigenous leaders from different Khoi and San groups who gathered to tell the consultants that the site is profoundly important for indigenous people who are deeply troubled by the development taking place without their consent let alone consultation. Feeling ran high, mainly because people are tired of consultations going nowhere. The significance of the land has been put to the authorities over multiple consultations, but seemingly it has not affected the decision-making regarding the development.
The SAHRA consultations were run by contracted consultants in line with SAHRA procedures. Two public meetings were supposedly organised, one at the River Club on the 21st November and one in Observatory at the Community Centre on the 22nd November. However, Observatory residents who tried to attend the public meeting at the River Club on the 21st were turned away, with security guards denying knowledge of any public meeting. This is not the first time that the landowners have denied access to the property for heritage consultations. When SAHRA first undertook a site visit and requested the nominators to join them in October 2021, the LLPT refused to allow us on site. We are not surprised that the LLPT has behaved in this way, since they have consistently tried to control any narrative that is contrary to their version of heritage, which includes the idea that (a) the River Club is somehow divorced from the wider significances of the Two Rivers Urban Park, and (b) had no significant historical events on site. In fact, since first appealing HWC’s provision protection order in 2018, the LLPT has consistently tried to downplay the heritage significance of the site, describing the intangible heritage of this ground zero site as ‘imagined’.
The sentiments expressed at the public meeting were vehement. The site is precious in cultural memory and the development is an assault on heritage held dear by many groups. In the image above, indigenous leaders place their staffs in a circle of unity showing their solidarity in opposition to the development.
The consultants will hopefully understand why this site is so important as a place where recognition of the untold history of the San and Khoi can be affirmed, not in concrete and steel for a global multinational and their local landlords, but in validating what HWC and the indigenous leaders proclaim as the most important heritage attribute of site – it’s the open space character, it’s connection to the river, the mountain and the stars.
But what is abundantly clear is that money is being thrown at this case so as to immobilise us in court. We cannot pursue this case and the campaign effectively with our hands tied economically behind our backs. Hence, we appeal to supporters of our campaign to support us financially to keep the case going. If everyone who has signed this petition contributed R20 or US$1, we would be in a much stronger position to fight this case fully. Please support us by contributing at our fundraising site. Any donation of any size will make a huge difference
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