Dawn light on the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers where we do our bird count. Egyptian Geese fly by. The cranes behind the little undamaged island stand silent, hopefully haemorrhaging money into bankruptcy for a company that sought to wreck the place with the collusion of the city that ignored its own environmental impact assessment which declared that it was wholly inappropriate to build on this environmentally sensitive floodplain.
It was not the environmental aspect that moved the courts to shut down construction however. Aboriginal people joined the campaign against this traditional, sacred land being developed. This was the very site of the first battle between South Africans and Europeans - in which Khoi warriors destroyed Dom Francisco D’Almeida’s vicious pirates (returning from massacres on the Indian coast) after the Portuguese thought they’d help themselves to their cattle. The cut-throat Portuguese nobleman was slain along with many other high-ranking Portuguese men-at-arms. The historical and cultural weight of the sight was enough to shut down the profiteering. They’ll continue to fight for their right to get rich off our environment and our heritage right up the courts. Let’s hope they fail and lose millions. Their propaganda about lost jobs absurdly pretends that those jobs wouldn’t have been just as viable on a less sensitive site.