Reply to Chief! Garu Zenzile Khoisan: What happens when issues of land and heritage clash?

Abstract

Editor’s note – In New Agenda 78, Chief! Garu Zenzile Khoisan, leader of the Gorinhaiqua Cultural Council, argued in favour of the massive and controversial proposed development of the River Club at the Two Rivers Urban Park in Observatory, Cape Town. This development is on land that is now privately owned, but which is significant to the Cape Peninsula’s Khoi and San people who were the historical custodians of the area. After the development plan was announced, representatives   of the local indigenous people, as well as local stakeholders, found themselves divided by bureaucratic disputes around spatial planning and its consequences.