The main leader behind the opposition to the multibillion rand Amazon development in Cape Town was unable to defend himself against claims he committed fraud and perjury in affidavits when he appeared before a full Bench of the Western Cape High Court yesterday.

The R4.6bn Amazon office, public park and affordable housing project on a former golf course has been tied up in litigation for a year, leaving city and provincial authorities concerned that it gives the impression that Cape Town is hostile to development, reports Business Day.

In March, Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath stopped construction, ruling in favour of the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council and the Observatory Civic Association, which do not want concrete on the privately owned land they say has intangible or spiritual significance.

Goliath ruled that economic development could not trump the rights of indigenous people. 

A full Bench has now heard an appeal on Goliath’s ban and a separate application to have her order rescinded or set aside.

Tauriq Jenkins approached the court in March, representing himself as the high commissioner of the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council. A Goringhaicona grouping came forward in July accusing him in court documents of fraud and perjury for claiming to be their leader. They support the development and want Goliath’s order rescinded.

Jenkins’ various attempts to have the case against him withdrawn have failed, notes Business Day.

In court documents in March, when he and the Observatory residents won a banning order on construction, Jenkins quoted Petrus Vaalbooi as one of the many indigenous leaders opposed to the development.

Vaalbooi submitted an affidavit to the court disputing this.

‘I categorically deny I have ever spoken to Tauriq Jenkins. I don’t know who that person is and I have never met him. Any averments made that I have opposed the River Club development ... is a blatant lie.’

When asked to address allegations that he falsified evidence before the court about Valbooi’s opposition, Jenkins said Vaalbooi had changed his mind about the development and he had not lied nor misrepresented him as opposed to the construction.

Acting for the group that wants him removed, Advocate Anton Katz said Jenkins had ‘bullied’ indigenous leaders to oppose the development ‘in a false misleading operation to achieve a nefarious purpose’.

Referring to the case being in court for a lengthy time and involving 11 parties, including the City of Cape Town and the developers, Katz said: ‘Mr Jenkins has dragged the world to court in an unfair, fraudulent manner.’

Full Business Day report