“We owe our essence to the rivers, the stars, the land, and the sacred animals, many of which are no longer in existence. We have lost to oblivion the Blue Buck, Quagga and the Cape Lion, all of whom were hunted to extinction soon after access to the Liesbeek River was denied. We always remember and miss them, and meet them in awe and reverence in our dreams. We say no to the concrete on the floodplain, to infill of the river, to the loss of memory to a mall with hotels.

We will not bid the kingfisher farewell. We say no to the violence against nature, to the violence of apartheid spatial planning, to the violence of the false claim that this is all done with the full consent of the Khoi and San. The Goringhaicona does not consent to this development. Not in a thousand years. Not in a million years. Never. It’s time we all pause to heal. We are of IGamirodi !Khaes, the “place where the stars gather”.

– Tauriq Jenkins, Indigenous Leader