Anonymous pamphlets and a website are being used in an apparent attempt to hijack the Observatory Civic Association in order to smother litigation against the controversial River Club development.
Thousands of full-colour pamphlets were distributed door-to-door in Observatory on three different occasions in September. Each drop involved a different pamphlet, with the first smearing Observatory Civic Association (OCA) chair Leslie London and Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council (GKKITC) high commissioner Tauriq Jenkins. The second targeted Jenkins, claiming his leadership position in the GKKITC which, together with the OCA has challenged the River Club developers in court, is “self-anointed”.
The third pamphlet stated the development, at which global corporation Amazon is to house their new South Africa web services headquarters, would bring thousands of jobs for unemployed people in Cape Town. However, an affidavit before court shows Amazon’s intention to build their web services headquarters in Cape Town was not dependent on the River Club, as there were five other sites short listed for the Amazon development.
Faceless smear
The text and images printed on the pamphlets, which bear no author or organisation’s name, are reproduced on a website at the address www.bestforobs.org, along with other articles in favour of the development. The website is likewise anonymous, with all articles posted by an “Allan” or authored by “Allan McDonald”, with the only contact information being a generic email address.
The site contains a prominently displayed link exhorting readers to join the OCA. It reads: “Protect your property. Protect your future. Join OCA to have your say.”
The link and exhortation are repeated in each article, among which are claims that Jenkins’ GKKITC leadership is “spurious”. One article, titled “Robservatory”, makes the defamatory claim that: “A few individuals, delinquently posturing as representative of the views and opinions of all Observatory residents and home owners, have created a blindingly deceptive narrative, backed by obscure funding.”
The site also violates copyright by reproducing a photograph of Jenkins taken by GroundUp photographer Ashraf Hendricks, without any credit or attribution.
Hijack attempt
London, speaking at an OCA town hall meeting on 27 September to address any concerns residents might have about OCA’s litigation against the River Club development, and falsehoods contained in the leaflets and the BestforObs site, said it was clearly an attempt to get people in support of the development to join and vote against opposition to the development.
London said a similar, more successful attempt to hijack the organisation had been made in 2017 when people in favour of large developments in the suburb joined for an AGM and elected property developers onto the committee. It was later found many of the new members did not qualify as they did not reside in Observatory or have businesses there, and the elections were nullified.
He said this attempt had so far been less successful. Since the first BestforObs pamphlet drop on 7 September, only six new members had joined, three of whom were known to the committee.
Lawfare against Khoi opposition
Attempts to discredit the GKKITC, who were joint applicants in the successful attempt to obtain an interdict against construction at the River Club in March, have been more successful.
The River Club development is situated at the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers and heritage assessments place it as the site of original colonial dispossession in South Africa, being where the Dutch settlers under Van Riebeeck pushed the Khoi off their traditional grazing lands.
The GKKITC represent a Khoi traditional house who have filed court papers stating there was no meaningful consultation with them or numerous other Khoi representatives, and thus the required heritage requirements for the development to proceed were not met.
Almost a year after the GKKITC and OCA filed papers against the development in the High Court, his authority to litigate on behalf of the GKKITC was challenged in court.
Attorney Tim Dunn, acting for people within the pro-development First Nations Collective, first approached the court in July this year, challenging Jenkins’ legitimacy. Should this approach succeed, the interdict to halt the development handed down by Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath in March this year, is undermined, as the GKKITC was an applicant in the matter, along with the OCA.
But at the OCA town hall meeting, supreme senior chief of the Goringhaicona stood up to say he had been approached in July this year – the same month Dunn brought a legal challenge against Jenkins’ authority in the GKKITC – and asked to join the Krotoa Goringhaicona as supreme senior chief. He said the Krotoa Goringhaicona was only registered in July, seemingly with the sole aim of setting up a Goringhaicona tribe in support of the development. He mentioned that members of the Krotoa Goringhaicona were present at the town hall meeting.
Propaganda condemned
Separately, River Club developers Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust denied having any involvement in the BestforObs campaign and had no comment on the campaign itself.
Attempts to call First Nations Collective spokesperson Zenzile Khoisan, who represents a Khoi faction in favour of the development, were unsuccessful as his phone was switched off.
Meanwhile, Urban land justice organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi on 16 September released a statement in which they condemned “the outright bullying of the Observatory Civic Association (OCA) through the use of the most basic and banal propaganda to coerce the residents of Observatory to support the River Club development”.
Ndifuna Ukwazi noted the printing of full colour pamphlets required a financial outlay and “a disregard for engaging with residents with authenticity and transparency”.
The organisation slammed a post on the BestforObs website which warns people that if the development is unsuccessful, the land will be invaded by squatters. The post includes a picture of shacks.
“It is a tactic taken out of the apartheid regimes handbook to promote the ‘swart gevaar’ that should not be allowed,” stated Ndifuna Ukwazi.
