Cape Town - The latest dispute arising from the R4.6 billion River Club development, which has seen Liesbeek Leisure Property Trust (LLPT) members being dragged to the Western Cape High Court on contempt of court allegations, has been postponed.
On Wednesday, Judge Chantal Fortuin indicated that whichever judge would be assigned to the matter needed sufficient time to go through the substantial papers filed by both parties.
The Observatory Civic Association (OCA) along with the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council (GKKITC) are pursuing litigation against the property developers claiming they breached a high court order in their continued work on the River Club construction site following an order by Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath on March 18, halting the development.
OCA’s Leslie London in his founding affidavit said that the group had been wilfully deceptive because as soon as the order was granted the construction work was halted between March 21 and June 27 but commenced after that, noting that the developer was clearly aware of the binding nature of the order.
“There is no realistic prospect that the trustees have now, contrary to their earlier belief, erroneously arrived at a sincere conclusion that the order is in fact suspended,” London said.
In response, LLPT members have opposed the application based on the legal advice regarding the nature of the order. They say the order was not final and because they have filed for an appeal of Goliath’s order at the Supreme Court of Appeal, the order is effectively suspended.
LLPT’s James James Tannenberger in his responding affidavit said: “It was always understood by the LLPT respondents that once the application for leave to appeal was instituted and pending determination, the operation of the order was suspended.”
The parties will return to court next week, where the matter will be fully ventilated. Meanwhile the GKKITC’s high commissioner, Tauriq Jenkins also faced legal action as his position as a representative of the council is being challenged by other members.
The matter was struck off the roll yesterday for lack of urgency but the council’s attorney has indicated that it would be re-enrolled at a later stage.
In an affidavit deposed by Edmen Hansen, regent of the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin, he said the tribe was in the process of weeding out “opportunistic” individuals but vowed their support as a group for the development.
“We accordingly have no objection to the reasonable development such as the River Club and technological participation from foreign companies such as Amazon so long as we are enfranchised and included tangibly and perpetually in such things, as we have a clear right to be,” he said.
rafieka.williams@inl.co.za