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

JOHANNESBURG • A plan to build African headquarters for the tech giant Amazon in Cape Town is in peril after a judge last Friday 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 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 stop 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' group that filed the lawsuit along with the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council.

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

NYTIMES