City continues to halt lease agreement

THE city will only be taken to court as a last resort if it fails to address the ongoing lease saga at Virginia Airport. Daryl Mann, the owner of Aero Natal, who has led the legal fight for the leases on behalf of the operators, said the municipality’s latest feasibility study to ascertain the future of the airport was nothing more than a ‘delaying tactic’. In June last year, Mann said the city would face High Court action by the operators if they didn’t finalise the lease agreements of the operators.

The latest study is one of many conducted by the city over the years (the last one was seven years ago), but all the studies have concluded the most viable solution was for Virginia Airport to remain where it is.

The municipality has been involved in a protracted legal battle with airport operators since October 2011 when the council reneged on leases offered to the operators which were subsequently withdrawn. “The current situation is bad for job security. How do you build business confidence with this much uncertainty? The new feasibility study is a waste of time. They (the city) keep looking at alternative sights but there has been no suitable sight to move to,” he said.

DA ward councillor, Dean Macpherson said the latest development is yet another example of stalling tactics employed by city manager, Sbu Sithole, to try and break the operators.

“A similar report conducted by the Economic Development Committee in 2007 felt that the best option for the airport was for it to remain at its present location. The fact that the airport serves the growing tourism economy in Durban was a highlight of the report.

“To now go and spend hundreds of thousands of rands which has not been approved by the Economic Development Committee can only be described as wasteful expenditure.

“It is abundantly clear this is a very direct and forceful campaign to get rid of the operators and possibly sow up the land for a politically connected crony,” he said.

Macpherson added Sithole and Deputy Mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala have sought to undermine the resolution of council to seek to finalise leases with the operators since 2011.

“The irony of this is that in 2011, Shabalala accompanied me on a tour of the airport to personally congratulate the operators on their forthcoming leases and is now clearly guilty of a spectacular political flip-flop for which she should be held accountable,” he said.

There has been no comment from city manager, Sbu Sithole, despite repeated attempts.