The legal wrangle over the development of Amazon’s new R4.5-billion South African headquarters on sacred Khoisan land in Cape Town is continuing, with no clear outcome in sight, as the court matter faced delays again this week.
Amazon Web Services launched its Cape Town operation in 2020 with plans to build its new local headquarters in the city. The US firm has been on a drive to hire local developers, project managers, and data scientists, while aiming to launch its eCommerce division.
However, Liesbeek Leisure Property Trust (LLPT), the developer that Amazon appointed to build its new headquarters in Observatory, allegedly did not properly consult with local people, the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council (GKKITC ) and Observatory Civic Association.
These groups filed an application in the Western Cape High Court opposing the development, and obtained an interim interdict ordering the developer to stop construction in March 2022, as they were building on a site held sacred by the Khoisan. LLPT later filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court of Appeal warning that Amazon was considering pulling out of the deal because of the delays. The court rejected the developers’ application for leave to appeal.
In a joint statement issued on Monday, the GKKITC, the Liesbeek Action Campaign, and Observatory Civic Association said that despite the interdict the developers had resumed construction on June 27 in violation of the interdict.
“We lodged papers to hold the developers in contempt of court on July 8. This matter should have been heard on July 12 but was delayed,” the organisations said.
Judge President John Hlope met with all the legal teams involved on August 11 and a new date was set for Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 August 23 to hear the contempt of court application, and Hlope undertook to allocate a judge for the matter,” the group said.
“The Judge President directed that the contempt application was to be heard along with an extraordinary application by Mr Tim Dunn on behalf of a group of persons claiming to represent the Goringhaicona and disputing the authority of our attorneys to represent the GKKITC,” the group said.
They added that the aim was “to usurp the power of the GKKITC based on a resolution taken by a group of individuals at a secret meeting without any notice to the GKKITC” six days before the contempt hearing was due to be heard.
“The resolution has no legal basis and is, we believe, simply an attempt to insert an unmandated group into the court process so as to derail the bona fide mandated representatives of an indigenous Khoi Council. However, yesterday afternoon we were advised by our lawyers, Cullinan and Associates, that the matters will not be heard on Monday and Tuesday because the Judge President has not allocated a judge to hear them because Dunn Attorneys had written to him saying that the application challenging Cullinan’s authority to represent the GKKITC was not ready to be heard,” the group said.
They described the move as “delaying tactics” and “abusive lawfare”, also designed to increase the legal fees arising from the case.
“Unlike the developer, who has untold funds to throw at the courts, our campaign is surviving solely through crowdfunding. We believe we have a very strong case in the review, which is also why we think we are being subjected to these delaying tactics by the proponents of the development who appear reluctant to allow progress that will enable the merits of the case to be subjected to legal scrutiny,” the group said.
