PLANS to build an international training centre with a football academy at the Newmarket Stables and Stables Lifestyle Market will go ahead, following approval by full Council on 4 May.
The public participation process for the Hoy Park Development was completed last year and the report was approved in Council, which, according to eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson, Thulani Mbatha, confirmed that the municipality has achieved all compliance requirements necessary for the development of the sports academy, and the land can therefore be leased for the development.
Mbatha said the report laid before Council stated that both the Provincial and National Treasury have no objections to the sports academy, provided that all necessary processes have been complied with.
With regard to objections received from the existing occupants on site and their supporters, the report explained that the municipality was acting in the best interest of sports development within the City. It also reaffirmed Council’s resolution, notwithstanding the objections lodged, granting the right by Hoy Park Management to use the capital assets (land) for the development of a sports academy.
In response to the outcome of the matter, ward councillor, Martin Meyer, said the DA always had and continues to support the concept of a sports academy for the city and had never wavered on this, and the fact that it believes in a government for the people by the people, and was a supporter of public participation as the process to follow in local government.
“What I want to know is, why have a public participation process if it is merely a box ticking exercise? Why ask the people of the city for their views, if the government of this city has made its decision already and will ignore the outcome of the process?
“We must be a Council that listens to the people. We must be a Council that looks at all options that are available to us, and not just run through with an idea when there is clearly unhappiness regarding the matter. When the decisions of Council directly affect the income of families and when it is a ‘bread-and-butter’ issue, then we must exhaust all options, and we have not done so here,” he said.
Meyer said that based on the events of the past 18 months and the outcome of the public participation process, the DA wanted to urge the city to take another track on this matter.
“Part of being a good leader is admitting when you may have made a mistake and to listening to others in correcting it. I ask Council to call for a workshop, inviting all the role-players, current tenants, Hoy Park, the city and everyone involved and find a way forward which is acceptable to all. I still firmly believe this doesn’t have to be an ‘either-or’ situation.
“We can have both here. We can have a world-class sports academy in the centre of the city and have a facility for sports relating to horses, and have a popular market serving our residents and tourists,” he said.
He said in 2014 he urged everyone to work together and listen to each other to come up with a solution so ground could be broken and building start within months, and if not, through court cases and other delays, it would take years before the academy gets off the ground, and he has been proven to be right.
“We need to find a solution that works for everyone. We can develop one sport without destroying another. We can build a cohesive city that creates jobs, not takes them away, but only if we take the time to become leaders who listen,” he said.
