South Africa’s indigenous Khoi and san tribes are currently in court to block American company amazon, from building what is to be their headquarters on their ancestral land.
The site is scheduled to be developed into a 70,000-square-meter complex that will house Amazon and other businesses, but locals say, the project will ruin a historically significant riverside site in Cape Town and harm the environment.
Tauriq Jenkins, high commissioner of the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council, one of the groups fighting the project said “We’re in a situation where a terrain that is so sacred to the people of our country is not just under threat, but being damaged and destroyed as we speak,”
Construction has already begun at the site, which houses a restaurant and golf course
In a statement, company spokesperson James Tannenberger said the opposing community group and Indigenous council led by Jenkins “have been driving a misinformation campaign …after their concerns were validly dismissed by the competent authorities during the comprehensive three-year development approval process.”
Property owners Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust, or LLPT, also said it has consulted Indigenous groups while planning the site’s redevelopment
The current divide within the Indigenous community is complex as some Indigenous leaders have given their approval to the project, Tannenberger added.
He said the new site will also pay tribute to their history by including a museum and memorial site, along with creating low-income housing and jobs
The Khoi Khoi and San were some of the country’s first inhabitants and their presence in the southern tip of Africa dates back thousands of years. Their lands were lost to colonial settlements in the 1600s.
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