South Durban residents march against erection of dug-out port

SOUTH Durban residents, farmers and activists from environmental organisations marched on Thursday against the erection of the multibillion-rand dug-out port on the old Durban International Airport site, saying it would leave tenant farmers and their workers destitute.

The airport, south of Durban, was decommissioned in May 2010 after the opening of King Shaka International Airport.

Last year, Transnet paid about R1.8bn to Airport Company South Africa to buy the site, intending to develop a terminal that would accommodate 16 container berths, five automotive berths and four liquid bulk berths.

The government believes the dug-out port would boost the provincial economy and create jobs. It is estimated the port would cost in the region of R100bn and create 20,000 direct and 47,000 indirect jobs during construction.

But residents and environmentalists have opposed the project vehemently, saying it would lead to traffic congestion, rob local farmers of their livelihoods and damage the environment in the area.

On Thursday, activists started a series of protests against the dug-out port, marching from the local Reunion beach to the periphery of the site where the port would be situated.

Bobby Peek, head of environmental organisation groundWork South Africa, said local residents would not benefit from the port.

"The dug-out would bring nothing but trouble to the local communities," he said. "We decided to march to protest against it because we don’t want it here. It would be owned by the conglomerate and would do nothing to improve the lives of our people."

Local tenant farmers said the construction of the port would rob them and their employees of their only source of income.

Siga Govender, chairman of the Airport Farmers Association, said they had been notified to vacate the land once construction got under way.

"The land means the world to me in the sense that I’m here six days a week from 7am till 5pm. When I get home, it’s only my farm that I think of and nothing else. So it’s my livelihood and I would like to remain on the land," he said.

Mr Govender said the compensation that Transnet had promised farmers would not sustain them and their workers for long.

Transnet spokesman Mboniso Sigonyela said the parastatal’s preparations for the construction of the port were at an advanced stage. He referred further queries to Lunga Ngcobo, a senior Transnet official, who could not be reached by Thursday afternoon.