W Cape in bid to resume construction of new Amazon HQ

Western Cape MEC for local government, environmental affairs and development Anton Bredell has filed an application for leave to appeal the order from the high court to temporarily stop construction of the new, R4.6-billion Amazon.com Africa headquarters in Cape Town.

“There are a number of errors in the judgment and the order … is fraught with misunderstandings about the wide public participation processes undertaken,” said the MEC’s office in a statement on Monday.

The project was stopped last month after Western Cape deputy judge president Patricia Goliath ruled that the River Club development in Observatory must be suspended after opposition from the Observatory Civic Association and the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council.

As previously reported by TechCentral, the ruling was opposed by developer Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust. The trust argued that halting the construction could lead to significant job losses (some 6 000 direct and 19 000 indirect jobs would be lost), be detrimental to the Cape Peninsula Khoi community and would cause loss of significant socioeconomic benefits, including developer-subsidised housing as well as major upgrades to surrounding roads and parks and gardens that would be open to the public.

According to Bredell’s statement, one of the errors identified in the judgment was the court making a ruling on issues which were not argued by the applicants as part of their case in the first place. The MEC is of the view that the court failed to undertake the exercise of weighing the balance of convenience, as it should have in an interdict application.  – © 2022 NewsCentral Media