The rehabilitation of a golf course at the confluence of Cape Town’s polluted Liesbeek and Black rivers does not require property development, but the state could restore it, argued one of the indigenous groupings that opposes the R4.6bn development, which would include offices for tech firm Amazon.

A Business Day report notes the private development, opposed by the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin indigenous council, plans to turn a disused private golf course into an office park with a public park, low-cost housing and R38m earmarked for transforming polluted canals into rivers.

The project promises 6 000 direct jobs. But it is being opposed by the Observatory Civic Association led by public health expert Professor Leslie London and some of the Goringhaicona.

Advocate Alan Dodson, speaking for the Goringhaicona, told the Western Cape High Court that the National Heritage Resources Act allows the state to expropriate culturally significant land for the purpose of conserving its heritage.

The group has asked the Western Cape High Court to interdict the construction of the offices.

In a separate action, it wants a review of the environment impact assessment process. The Goringhaicona say the land is sacred to the Khoi and San, described in court as the ‘First Nations peoples’.

It is described by the grouping as ‘ground zero for colonial land dispossession’ in SA.

Opposing the Goringhaicona in court are the developers Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust, the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Government and the Western Cape First Nations collective, which includes indigenous people and other Goringhaicona.

The Business Day report says at issue in the three-day court hearing is whether a legally required ‘heritage impact process’ was conducted in the manner the law stipulates.

Dodson argued the assessment is not ‘worth the paper it was written on’ and is invalid.

Explaining the cultural significance of the land, Dodson told the court his clients, excluded from the SA land claims process, did not want buildings in the River Park.

‘How does one evoke the natural state that was (there) before colonial forces came and started attacking?’

Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath asked how the applicants would face irreparable harm from the development of a golf course. She also asked if they had excluded themselves from the legally required consultation when they chose not to participate with other indigenous people.

‘Removing yourself from the process ... isn’t that a recipe for disaster? Can you come back afterwards and say “I was excluded”?’

She also wanted to know how they envisaged the use of the land.

Full Business Day report