A war of words has erupted between the developers of a mixed use property in River Club, Cape Town, and a university professor who is opposing the development that will house global group Amazon.
University of Cape Town (UCT) Prof Leslie London, who has led a campaign against Zenprop’s River Club mixed-use development, has accused the developer of lying about the multibillion-rand project.
London has opposed the rezoning of an area in Cape Town, part of the Liesbeek River and Black River floodplain, which would allow Zenprop and its development partners to create the R4bn office park.
The development is located on a 15ha parcel of land earmarked for development by the Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust (LLPT). The trust includes Zenprop, a private developer founded in 1998.
Amazon is expected to take up 70,000m² of the property, which lies in the suburb of Observatory.
London, who is head of UCT’s Division of Public Health Medicine, responded to a story published by Business Day on Sunday.
He said that Zenprop’s management was being dishonest when they said the development would preserve the heritage of the Khoisan people who lived on or near the land.
The two communities fought cattle-raiding Portuguese soldiers in 1510 as well as Dutch settlers in the 1650s.
“It’s a puzzle that Zenprop claim that the River Club development is anything more than a moneymaking exercise by speculators,” he said via e-mail.
“The development will place 150,000m2 of concrete on a floodplain of high environmental sensitivity and of huge heritage significance for First Nation Khoi groups,” said London, who is also the chair of the Observatory Civic Association (OCA).
He said the site had been nominated for provincial and national heritage status and was slated for nomination to Unesco as a World Heritage Site.
LLPT said on Tuesday this was false.
“It is not true that the site has been nominated for provincial and national heritage status. While Mr Tauriq Jenkins, who sits on OCA with Mr London, has made submissions to the provincial and national heritage authorities calling for this status, which have not been backed by any expert reports, these have not been accepted or followed through by these authorities,” the trust said.
Zenprop CEO James Tannenberger had said the project would include offices, bespoke retail, residential apartments including subsidised inclusionary housing, and rights for a hotel, as well as a private school and gym.
He said that the development site would include 68% of dedicated green open spaces, with 6km of running and walking paths and ecological trails that would be open to the public.
The open spaces would include an indigenous medicinal garden, a heritage-eco information trail and a garden amphitheatre for use by the First Nations and the public, as well as “a first-of-its-kind First Nation heritage cultural and media centre in the City of Cape Town”.
LLPT said The First Nations Collective, which it claims represents the majority of the First Nations Khoisan leaders in the Cape Peninsula, has backed the development.
LLPT said that London was misinforming the public on the River Club redevelopment by penning articles that were “devoid of the true facts”.
“He chooses to ignore the fact that the project has the vociferous support of the vast majority of Khoi and San leaders and their councils in the Western Cape including those of the Gorinhaiqua, Gorachouqua, Cochoqua, Korana, Griqua Royal Houses, San Royal House of Nǀǀnǂe, and other indigenous structures including those affiliated to the National Khoi-San Council and the Khoi Cultural Heritage Development Council,” the trust said.
But London said the fact the developers had “found some Khoi leaders willing to support the development did not change the fact that the majority of Khoi groupings saw the development as an insult”.
He said they did not accept that “a media centre and indigenous herb garden can replace the destruction of intangible heritage”.
“LLPT and Zenprop could have developed a heritage park with some appropriate buildings in the park, as suggested by the city’s environmental experts.
“Instead, the developers have ignored huge public opposition to press ahead with a development of an upmarket Canal Walk, which will forever obliterate the intangible heritage of the Open Riverine valley and undermine the city’s climate resilience, contrary to multiple city policies,” he said.
London said the development failed to meet the requirement for approval in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act.
He said the provincial heritage resources authority, Heritage Western Cape, had also rejected the development proposal.
Established in January 2003, this public entity’s job is to identify, protect and conserve the heritage resources of the province.
London said the City of Cape Town’s environmental management authorities noted 13 grounds for appealing its environmental authorisation, including flooding concerns, biodiversity risk and conflict with climate change policies.
But LLPT said London continued to “completely ignore the comprehensive environmental and zoning approval processes that have been completed.
“The real fact is Mr London has been an active stakeholder since 2016 in the development approval processes, yet has failed to commission a single specialist assessment or specialist review of the comprehensive and independent specialist reports that meticulously assessed the biodiversity, hydrology, socioeconomic, visual and heritage impacts of the project,” LLPT said.
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