A faction of the First Nations people made a bid on Friday to get the Western Cape High Court to stop the construction of Amazon's new headquarters in Cape Town until there was further consultation over site's heritage value and a review of the permissions granted.

‘The more established they will become in their position, the less likely the reviewing court is going to say "tear it down",’ argued Advocate Peter Hathorn, acting for a grouping opposed to the development.

A News24 report notes in March 2022, Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath granted an interim interdict, stopping building on the River Club site.

The construction company restarted in June 2022, after a period of doing low-key maintenance, and on Friday insisted that it was not building beyond the rising building seen from the highway.

The matter was becoming bogged down in lawfare, which Hathorn argued gave developers time for more construction.

Friday's application was for interim relief to force a stop to construction, pending the hearing of the contempt application by those opposed to the development.

Hathorn said the leave to appeal or the review had not been heard yet and the builders would build themselves into a position where the court found it pointless to find against them.

‘They were aware of the review application, and they carried on construction at their own risk,’ said Hathorn.

The developer’s lawyer, Sean Rosenberg SC, argued that while all of the court cases were underway, no additional work was going to be done in the intervening period.

He said there were two precincts and the work at the moment was taking place in Precinct 2A in buildings that would house Amazon's web services on about 90 000m2.

Precinct 1, the mixed-use residential area, would take up 60 000m2 and was not scheduled to start building yet.

A third precinct would be open land.

According to News24, he said the ‘bogey’ that developers would build themselves into an impregnable position could not be supported.

He said the area previously had a golf course, asphalt parking, and was degraded, so there was ‘nothing to preserve’.

Full News24 report