Construction of “River Club” development underway

Ground has been broken and construction of the controversial “River Club” development, now known as Riverlands, is now underway.

The Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust (LLPT) hosted a sood-turning event on Wednesday to officiate construction of the project. Western Cape premier, Alan Winde, and Cape Town mayor, Geordin-Hill Lewis were present at the proceedings. The government and municipality have long supported the project, along with First Nation’s group, the Western Cape First Nations Collective.

Vision

The LLPT says the R4.6 billion centre, located between the Liesbeek Parkway and the Liesbeek River, will be a 14-hectare mixed-used development. It is primarily intended to be used as a “First Nation’s Heritage and Media Centre”, but subsidised housing and transport infrastructure will also be built on the site.

Spokesperson for the LLPT, James Tannenberger, says once the centre is constructed it will be operated and managed by the Western Cape First Nations Collective (WCFNC).

“The LLPT recognises that without the WCFNC leaderships’ commitment to finding common agreement with the developer on how best to celebrate and commemorate the history and heritage of the Riverlands site, reaching this significant moment would not have been possible.”

Controversy

This development has been the subject of legal challenges since 2017, with some First Nation groups in support and other opposing it. It even made it to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Opposition groups (specifically the Observatory Civic Association and the First Nations’ group, the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council) did not want anything to be built on the site. It believed the site itself, which is the Two Rivers Urban Park, carried cultural significance and building on it would diminish that.

But challenges to the project were ultimately dismissed.