Supplied.
This manipulated image shows what the old Durban International Airport site would look like after its transformation to a dugout port.
Unscruplulous property speculators were targeting South Durban, trying to buy up properties around the proposed R100 billion dig-out port at the old Durban international airport site in the hope of selling them for greater profit, Transnet group chief executive Brian Molefe warned yesterday.
Speaking to more than 150 residents and community leaders from the area, Molefe expressed concern that the speculators were trying to take advantage of bigger opportunities around the dig-out port, construction of which was expected to begin in 2016.
Owners needed to hold on to their properties because Transnet had no plan to embark on “forced removals”.
“There are sharks out there taking advantage of the situation… They are going around asking you to sell your houses because of the dig-out port plan.
“They are making offers that you think are great, but my advice to you is to hold on to your properties. These people want to buy your property and possibly sell it to us or other companies for even more money in the future,” he said.
Molefe said Transnet’s consultation process with interested and affected parties on the dig-out port plan had just begun and nothing had been finalised. He said while the community had complained about a lack of consultation, the official process was now under way and would continue until 2015.
Molefe urged residents to be part of the process and not rush into selling their properties as Transnet did not even know which areas could be affected.
He said “alarmist statements” from the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance that residents would be forcibly removed for the project did not help matters.
“They are fuelling community concerns with such talk which could see some residents opt to sell their properties in the worry that they may be moved. We don’t intend to forcibly move anyone,” he said.
But alliance co-ordinator Desmond D’sa said last night official documents, such as the eThekwini Municipality’s Back of Port Plan and the government’s Strategic Integrated Projects corridor plan, referred to “expropriation”.
He said the many informal settlements in Clairwood would also have to be moved as they were not catered for in the plans.
Jacobs resident Joyce Whitcher confirmed that she had been approached by a businessman who wanted to buy her property for R2 million. “He came by without giving his name. He looked around the property and enquired who owned the house. He said he heard it was on sale along with other properties in the area… Some of my neighbours and friends also said they were approached,” she said.
Fano Zungu, of the Reunion Community Forum, said he and a number of other residents had also been approached to sell their properties. They had had offers from a Gauteng couple late last year.
“A couple who drove a car with GP number plates came to Reunion going door to door asking residents if they wanted to sell their homes. While we have heard about the dig-out port plans, we have never been consulted even though Reunion is located closest to the project… When the couple came to the area we knew what they were up to and told them to speak to a full committee of the Reunion Community Forum and present their plans,” he said.
Pat Acutt, the director of Acutts Estate Agents, and Myles Wakefield, the chief executive of Wakefields Real Estate, both said that while South Durban suburbs were in demand, they had not noticed a spike in residential prices in the area.
“Clearly suburbs surrounding the port are prime dormitory areas and it is inevitable that if the dig-out port project goes ahead, there will be a surge in demand with thousands of jobs expected to be created… There will always be speculative investors and developers looking to make money when there is a mega project such as the dig-out port,” Acutt said.
Marc Descoins, Transnet’s programme director for the project, said Transnet hoped to start the first phase of construction by 2016. – The Mercury
