by KRISTIN ENGEL
Cape Town - The Salt River Heritage Society, Observatory Civic, Oude Molen Eco Village, Iziko Museum, Goringhaicona Khoi Khoi Indigenous Traditional Council, and about 100 citizens took part in a resistance walk, to voice their opposition to the Amazon development, in Liesbeek River, on Freedom Day.
The aim of the Resistance Walk was to honour the history of the indigenous footprint of the area and the first land grab on the banks of the Liesbeek River in 1657, by reinstating the commemorative plaque that has been severely vandalised over time.
ANC MPL Faiez Jacobs participated in the event and said that the area’s application for a national heritage site needs to be transparent.
“This was public land before it was sold for peanuts to the private sector. It should be given back to the public as a national heritage site, the status that it deserves.
“We want to voice our opposition to the development of a new Amazon plant on sacred, cultural land, here where the two rivers meet.
“As a member of Parliament, I am calling for transparency from the Western Cape Government about the Amazon development and demand land expropriation without compensation for the area,” said Jacobs.
Tauriq Jenkins, high commissioner of the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoi Traditional and Indigenous Council, said that there was a deep solidarity and sense of united communities at the walk.
“Khoi leadership, together with diverse communities, paved a new chapter of a shared resistance against greed and avarice. We made the commitment that our heritage is not for sale. That we will defend and protect our land and healing,” said Jenkins.
The groups involved in organising the walk stood in collective solidarity and said that they acknowledge this soil as the Ground Zero Precinct, where wars of liberation, resistance, and dispossession took place – where the land was taken for the first time.
“We will stand against the threat of developers, and the Amazon complex. We say today, our heritage is not for sale, our freedom is not for sale,” said Jenkins.