SOUTH Africa’s High Court has temporarily halted construction of Amazon’s planned new Africa headquarters in Cape Town and ordered the company to consult with indigenous people who say the site is sacred land.
Building work should cease immediately and developer Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust must undertake “meaningful engagement and consultation” with members of the Khoisan people, the original inhabitants of the land, the court said in a March 18 ruling.
“The fundamental right to culture and heritage of indigenous groups, more particularly the Khoi and San First Nations Peoples are under threat in the absence of proper consultation,” the Western Cape Division of the High Court in Cape Town said.
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Tauriq Jenkins, a spokesman for the indigenous people’s Goringhaicona Khoena Council, said in a text message that he was aware of the ruling and “we will now proceed with the
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