Since 2004, Amazon has been building a foothold on the African continent.\u00a0 In Cape Town, it already employs thousands in a global call centre and a range of data hubs.\u00a0 Its South African career portal<\/a> is a busy place, with the vast majority of advertised jobs located in Cape Town.\u00a0 In April, as part of its aggrandising drive into the continent, the company announced that it would be opening its African headquarters as part of a new, multipurpose development.\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The Cape Town development, worth R4 billion (US$284 million), is part of a broader enterprise spanning 15 hectares along a riverside area that promises a range of uses: a hotel, offices, shops, a gym, a number of restaurants, a conference space and affordable housing.\u00a0 Amazon is intended as the main tenant, with its headquarters covering 70,000 square metres (17.3 acres).<\/span><\/p>\n The project is not going ahead unopposed.\u00a0 The site had previously been given<\/a> a two-year interim heritage designation, which expired in April 2020.\u00a0 It is distinguished by riverside, verdant space and the confluence of the Black and Liesbeek Rivers, considered of cultural significance to some descendants of the Khoi and San.\u00a0 To them historical parallels of this enterprise appear with ominous significance.\u00a0 The Khoi did valiant battle with cattle-raiding Portuguese in a famous encounter half a millennium ago, leaving Francis de Almeida, the first viceroy of the Portuguese Indies, dead.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1659, the Dutch followed, though on this occasion, the tribes were unable to prevail.\u00a0 The colonial administrator Jan Van Riebeeck had little time for a culture with no written title deeds for land or written records.\u00a0 An all too familiar pattern of conduct by a European power followed: appropriation, dispossession, a spate of armed uprisings.\u00a0 \u201cYou can trace the origins of our identity here, it is the footprint of our resistance against colonialism,\u201d suggests<\/a> Tauriq Jenkins of the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council (GKKITC).\u00a0 The development showed \u201ca lack of sensitivity to our heritage\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n The Observatory Civic Association, a body representing residents from a nearby community, claims<\/a> that upwards of 50,000 objections to the development have been lodged with city and provincial authorities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This month, the GKKITC and the Observatory Civic Association filed an interdict in the Western Cape High Court seeking to halt the development upon the River Club site. The broader object of the campaign is to ultimately have the riverside area listed as a World Heritage Site.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A petition<\/a> opposing the development has also attracted, to date, almost 57,000 names.\u00a0 Comprising \u201cunique heritage and environmentally sensitive riverine area\u201d, the development would negate \u201cthe history of resistance by indigenous Khoi peoples in the area and the deep cultural and spiritual links that they hold with the valley.\u201d\u00a0 The petitioners also claim that flooding risks will be aggravated and destroy the means by which the aquifer on the site can be recharged, an essential part of Cape Town\u2019s resilience before the effects of climate change.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Amazon, for its part, has left the task of answering any searching questions on the development to Zenprop, the main developer.\u00a0 Zenprop, in turn, has referred those queries to the Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust, who claim<\/a>, predictably, that milk honey will flow: jobs will follow (6,000 direct, 19,000 indirect), as will foreign investment and an improvement in Cape Town\u2019s quality of life.\u00a0 It is also hoping that local support for the project will remain sufficiently strong.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n LLTP\u2019s blinkered Jody Aufrichtig finds little in the way of dissatisfaction.\u00a0 The appropriate approvals process was pursued, and the public consulted.\u00a0 \u201cThere is no groundswell of unhappiness,\u201d she asserts<\/a>. \u201cThe handful of vocal objectors who remain, who were given fair opportunity to participate, simply do not like the outcome.\u201d\u00a0 As for cultural sensitivities, Aufrichtig outlined a few proposed measures, including designs for a heritage centre, an Indigenous medicinal garden, and a hiking trail.\u00a0 Descendants of the Khoi and San would also be involved in the project as educators and operators.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the groups cheering Amazon and the impending development is the First Nations Collective, which is also drawn from members of the Khoi and San.\u00a0 Its spokesperson, Zenzile Khoisan<\/strong>, felt that their various cultural needs had been addressed<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cWe have secured a place to memorialise and celebrate our cultural agency and belonging, where we can articulate our narrative in our own voice to the world.\u201d\u00a0 He also approved<\/a> of plans that \u201cput First Nations at the centre of the project, right across the street from that building everyone is talking about, the Amazon building.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Cape Town Mayer Dan Plato<\/strong> has also given his nod of approval.\u00a0 \u201cWe are acutely aware of the need to balance investment and job creation, along with heritage and planning considerations.\u201d\u00a0 On this occasion, the balance overwhelmingly favoured tourism and jobs.\u00a0 The application, he claimed<\/a> in a May statement skimpy on environmental impacts, \u201cdoes not adversely affect the rights of surrounding properties and appropriate design mitigation will be required in the conditions of approval.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Such an accommodating tone to Amazon should come as a worry, not only to those in South Africa, but farther afield on the continent.\u00a0 The company\u2019s ruthlessness is a grand rebuke for all who think certain markets, as a rule, encourage diversity and healthy competition.\u00a0 The Amazon effect, as it is termed, has seen the company firmly, if not brutally, assert its kingly role in the e-commerce marketplace.\u00a0 The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) has drawn attention to a tendency the company has made famous over the years: eliminating competition, absorbing industries and killing innovation.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In June 2021, the ILSR released a factsheet<\/a> documenting the various sins of the company.\u00a0 The list is ugly and extensive including, among many things, the company\u2019s policy of impairing the means small businesses have \u201cto operate independently and blocking them from having direct relationships with their customers.\u201d\u00a0 Amazon has also made a habit of pinching the \u201cbest ideas and innovations\u201d from independent businesses. It blocks independent businesses from offering lower prices available on other sites.\u00a0 It shuns due process in eliminating small businesses and sells goods and services below cost \u201cto harm rivals and take market share.\u201d \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lawmakers in the United States have also shown interest in the company\u2019s predatory practices. \u00a0The US House Judiciary Committee, after a 15-month investigation, found<\/a> that Amazon \u201chas monopoly power over many small- and medium size businesses that do not have a viable alternative to Amazon for reaching online consumers.\u201d\u00a0 Amazon, for its part, insists through lobbying and public relations efforts that its presence is a tonic for small businesses in what it calls<\/a> \u201ca mutually beneficial relationship\u201d.\u00a0 The company, the claim goes, provides a valuable platform to enable them to thrive.\u00a0 \u201cAs many independent businesses across the country have struggled and even shuttered, smaller companies have continued to grow with Amazon.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Small business owners in South Africa and beyond, including independent retailers, small consumer product manufacturers, and publishers, have been warned.\u00a0 As the great plundering founder Jeff Bezos himself observed<\/a>, \u201cWhen you are small, someone else that is bigger can always come along and take away what you have.\u201d\u00a0 The door to a continent is being opened, and, with fitting darkness, it is taking place upon historically dispossessed land.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Binoy Kampmark<\/strong> was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.\u00a0 He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research.\u00a0Email: [email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
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