A process to verify the heritage status of the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP) in Observatory has been met with a barrage of lawyers' letters, labelling it as “superfluous and a waste of public money”.
The South African Heritage Resource Agency (SAHRA) is undertaking the process after it was approached to implement provisional protection over the area which also houses the controversial River Club development.
In response to a request for a meeting, a company contracted by SAHRA to conduct the process received letters from legal representatives of the River Club developers, the Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust (LLPT), the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and the “second” Goringhaicona Khoi Khon Indigenous Traditional Council, which emerged recently and is in opposition to the already existing one.
Lawyers for LLPT said any further public hearings to “verify” the heritage of the TRUP was “superfluous” because the heritage significance of the area “has been well documented”.
The developers regarded the public participation process that it had conducted through a service provider before the environmental authorisation and planning approvals, as adequate.
“...We submit that the meeting-related process you intend undertaking at SAHRA’s behest will amount to an unnecessary, wasteful and legally indefensible duplication of public resources, and of the public purse, in a process that will carry no weight whatsoever.“
LLPT also referred to the recent Western Cape High Court ruling which overruled the March interdict that put to a halt construction on the site until the review of the authorisation and urban planning authorisations.
The ruling by Judge Patricia Goliath also ordered for a meaningful participation of all the affected and interested parties.
According to the LLPT, lawyers for the GKKTIC had indicated that the council would withdraw as co-applicant in the court application for the review process.
SAHRA’s manager for the built environment, Ben Mwasinga said the body was approached by Tauriq Jenkins and the Observatory Civic Association (OCA) with an application for provisional protection over the TRUP as well as for the area to be graded as a national heritage site.
A two-year provisional protection by Heritage Western Cape (HWC) on the TRUP where the River Club site was in place from 2018 to 2020.
When it lapsed, HWC was unable to keep the site under protection and referred it to SAHRA, said Mwasinga.
“In 2021 SAHRA was formally approached by Tauriq Jenkins and the Observatory Civic Association to put in place another provisional protection as well as an application for the grading of the site as a national Heritage site”.
Mwasinga said at the time there was also a court case regarding the development at the site and nothing much could be done.
Now an independent company, Geo-Environmental and Technical Services, was appointed by SAHRA to conduct the process.
But the process has not received support from those supporting the development.
The State Attorney's office, which represented the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs, denied knowledge of a notice of the provisional protection application being tabled before the Grading and Declaration Review Committee (GDRC).
“Our client is prejudiced in its ability to deal with the merits and legal propriety of the processes SAHRA has, and intends following, without being provided with the relevant papers,” the office said.
It further noted that the stated aims of the SAHRA proposed meeting to “understand the perception and expectations of the interested and affected parties regarding this project (River Club development) had been met in the heritage impact assessment and public participation processes for the various development approvals”.
Mwasinga confirmed a meeting was held on November 22 with OCA, Jenkins and those concerned about the impact of the development on the heritage of the site.
No further details could be immediately obtained.
However, Mwasinga said SAHRA would take into consideration the input it received from all the parties and the court rulings as well.
He could not say when a decision would be made, but it would take “longer than three months”.
A date for the court review of the approvals has yet to be set.
LLPT said construction on the site was ongoing but would not indicate when the first phase would be completed.