Plan for Amazon headquarters in South Africa in peril after court order

JOHANNESBURG (NYTIMES) - A plan to build African headquarters for the tech giant Amazon in Cape Town is in peril after a judge on Friday (March 19) ordered construction to stop, arguing that the developers had not properly consulted indigenous South Africans.

The US$300 million (S$407 million) development had fuelled a nasty feud within indigenous, or First Nations, communities over whether building on what many consider sacred land would desecrate their history and culture, or uplift it, since the developer had promised to include an indigenous heritage centre.

Judge Patricia Goliath, of the Western Cape High Court, found that the developer had exacerbated those divisions by engaging in a biased consultation process that excluded many indigenous groups.

"The fundamental right to culture and heritage of Indigenous groups," she wrote, was "under threat in the absence of proper consultation."

The site of the development was most recently a golf course and driving range called The River Club. Although First Nations groups differ on what happened at that exact location, there is general agreement that it belongs to a broader area where their ancestors first fought off colonial invaders and where the first colonial land theft occurred in South Africa.

Construction started last year after city and Western Cape provincial officials approved the project, despite concerns raised by some government agencies that the developers had not adequately vetted the views of indigenous people, or the ways in which the development would diminish the heritage value of the site.

A First Nations organisation and a local residents association filed a lawsuit to overturn the approvals of city and provincial officials. They also asked a judge to halt construction while the case was pending.

In her 79-page ruling, Ms Goliath said if a judge were to find that the approvals were improper, it would be difficult for the parties that filed the lawsuit to get proper relief if the development were at an advanced stage. Not only did she say that construction had to stop but also that the developer had to consult further with indigenous people.

"The judge basically went with truth and justice," said Professor Leslie London, president of the Observatory Civic Association, the residents organisation that filed the lawsuit along with the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council.

The court must still review the decisions by the city and province in approving the development to determine whether they are legally valid.

A statement released by the property owner, Liesbeek Leisure Property Trust, said only that it was "deeply disappointed" by the judge's decision and that it was considering its legal options.

A spokesman for Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.

As the controversy has unfolded over the past couple of years, Amazon has remained quiet. During a court hearing in January, a lawyer for the trust said a delay in construction would essentially kill the project because Amazon is likely to pull out as the anchor tenant.

Last year, Cape Town officials had celebrated Amazon choosing its city as "a base of operations on the African continent". They said the company would create jobs and bolster the region as a tech hub.