What if developers were black owned?

IN A RECENT interview that was aired on YouTube, the leader of one of the two groups objecting to the development at the River Club in Observatory, Cape Town, Tauriq Jenkins of the Gauringhaicono Khoi Khoin Traditional Indigenous Council, saw it fit to point out in his concluding remarks that the developer, the Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust, has an all white board, is owned/funded by one of South Africa’s largest white-owned construction companies, Zenprop, and is doing the bidding of a company that is owned and run by a white male, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

Consequently, one could almost certainly be forgiven for concluding that Judge Patricia Goliath of the Western Cape High Court might have ruled differently and refused permission to challenge the authorisations granted by the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government if the owners of River Club and Zenprop had been black.

This is extremely sad, for if we are going to create jobs in the construction sector, we have to have one set of rules for everyone.

TERENCE GRANT | Cape Town