Plan for old Durban airport site
Amid speculation that the old Durban International Airport site will be leased to car giant Toyota, municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe says he hopes the national government will take a strategic decision soon about the long-term future of the site.
The Airports Company SA (Acsa), Toyota SA and the Transport Ministry would not respond to reports yesterday that certain parts of the airport site would be leased to the Japanese car maker for three-and-a-half years, pending a decision about the ultimate future of the site.
Toyota said it would respond today.
Sutcliffe said he had no knowledge about the reports, but was aware that Toyota needed the land for expansion and, in his opinion, it would make "economic sense" for the site to be leased to the car-assembly plant in the interim.
"We would not normally get involved in such negotiations, unless there was an application for rezoning or special consent, although we would play some role in overall negotiations on the future of the site."
Sutcliffe said that while most of the airport land was owned by Acsa, he was aware of a previous agreement in terms of which Transnet would have "first bite at the cherry" when it was sold. This was because of the potential to develop a new dig-out port to relieve long-standing congestion and capacity problems within Durban harbour.
"My view is that this matter needs to be dealt with by the national cabinet, as the airport land is undoubtedly one of the most strategic pieces of land in the country at the moment, from the point of view of manufacturing and logistics... one would hope that there would be a strategic decision coming from the cabinet within the next six to 12 months."
Sutcliffe also confirmed that he had delivered a presentation at the Toyota factory on the proposed dig-out harbour two months ago.
"It is not a new proposal. Trans-net, eThekwini and various provincial government departments have been working on ideas around what is the best phasing with regard to the expansion of the port ... from now until 2030 there are some very important opportunities ahead."
Asked whether there were plans to expand the petroleum refining industry on the airport land, Sutcliffe said he had no direct knowledge of what was planned, but confirmed that there had been discussions in the past about the possibility of building a fuel-cracking plant, or possibly linking up the existing two Durban refineries into one.
Other observers note that while the cost of building a dig-out port in Durban is expected to be massive, the long-term viability of the country's busiest port could also be jeopardised if the airport land was to be developed based on short-term expediency.
A further area of uncertainty is the future of the SA Air Force 15 Squadron, which is still based at the old airport site.
The Mercury
Posted at 09:06AM Jul 15, 2010 by Editor in Cities and Towns |