{"id":689691,"date":"2023-05-19T15:41:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T13:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=689691"},"modified":"2023-05-19T15:41:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T13:41:06","slug":"big-win-for-r4-5-billion-river-club-development-in-cape-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/689691\/big-win-for-r4-5-billion-river-club-development-in-cape-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Big win for R4.5 billion River Club development in Cape Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Cape Town is hailing the end to a protracted legal saga over its River Club redevelopment project, which has been stalled due to claims over the land.<\/p>\n

The R4.6 billion multi-purpose complex in Cape Town has been in the works for years and is set to house Amazon\u2019s new African headquarters, among other features.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, 16 May 2023, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) refused the Observatory Civil Association (OCA) permission to appeal the Western Cape High Court\u2019s order dismissing the OCA\u2019s application to interdict the development.<\/p>\n

“The City of Cape Town welcomes the SCA\u2019s decision to protect this vital development that will hold enormous heritage, environmental, economic, infrastructural and other benefits to Cape Town and its residents,” the city said.<\/p>\n

A case was brought before the courts by the OCA and Tauriq Jenkins – who had claimed to represent the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council (GKKITC) – claiming that the site earmarked for the project was of great historical value to First Nations people.<\/p>\n

They said its redevelopment would threaten their heritage while posing an ecological danger to the Liesbeek and Black River confluence and its surrounding environment.<\/p>\n

The Western Cape High Court initially ruled in favour of the groups seeking to stop the project from moving ahead, saying that not enough consultation had been done. However, in November 2022, this ruling was overturned by the SCA.<\/p>\n

The SCA has now refused permission to appeal that decision.<\/p>\n

A rescission application<\/a><\/strong> brought by other members of the GKKITC against Jenkins later distanced itself from the litigant, claiming he had no authority to act on their behalf nor of other First Nations groups. This scuppered the case even further.<\/p>\n

According to the City of Cape Town, contrary to the OCA’s claims, the development project will assist in preserving and protecting First Nations heritage, while also adding great economic benefit to affected communities.<\/p>\n

This includes rehabilitating a portion of the Liesbeek River and creating green spaces, while also\u00a0establishing heritage infrastructure in partnership with First Nations groups.<\/p>\n

The project is expected to create more than 5,200 construction jobs and approximately 19,000 employment opportunities, establish public transport infrastructure, inject R4.5 billion of direct investment into the local economy, and deliver new residential accommodation, including affordable housing.<\/p>\n

“The city respects the right of civil society to challenge invalid decisions, but the OCA\u2019s litigation is groundless and an abuse of court. Moreover, the misguided application undermined the public interest,” the city said.<\/p>\n

“The OCA threatened to destroy the only viable plan to rehabilitate polluted canals into natural rivers and to convert a private golf course and parking lot into a heritage-affirming development which includes affordable housing.”<\/p>\n

On top of damaging the project, the city said that the OCA’s actions damaged Cape Town\u2019s global reputation as an investment destination, “thereby costing us jobs and opportunities for economic recovery and alleviating poverty”.<\/p>\n

“The outcome of this court case once again confirms the city\u2019s commitment to following due process in considering development applications while trying our utmost to create an environment that is welcoming to investors as we need to grow our economy,” it said.<\/p>\n

The OCA\u2019s litigation cost Cape Town\u2019s ratepayers millions of rand in legal costs, the city said, adding that it would try to recover these costs by following the courts’ cost orders against OCA.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Big win for Amazon in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City of Cape Town is hailing the end to a protracted legal saga over its River Club redevelopment project, which has been stalled due to claims over the land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":427714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-689691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":689763,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689691\/revisions\/689763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}