Editor
I NOTE with some trepidation the announcement that Seaworld Investment Holdings is bidding to develop the current Virginia Airport site, yet I can find nothing on the internet showing any previous experience of the company to undertake such a large operation. In addition to this, based on the recent registration of the company (registration number K2013/009431/07), it looks suspiciously as if the company was registered for the purposes of this development.
I am sure the ANC-run local government would, in the interests of transparency, share with us, the rate-paying citizens of eThekwini, all the relevant information pertaining to this ‘investment’. We could start with shareholders and their association/affiliation with the city.
It is also interesting to note that the proposed new airport is outside of the municipal boundaries (Ward 99) so the citizens of Durban will be without a local airport – and an airport located 72km away from its current location can hardly be described as a ‘local airport’. I am also particularly relieved to note that the reason the proposal did not go through the normal bidding processes was found ‘to be sound’ by the accounting officer.
We as rate-payers can therefore sleep soundly at night, knowing that a new company with no history of this sort of development did not go through the approved bidding processes, leaving no room for the usual government corruption, graft and nepotism to tarnish what is obviously a very well-formulated plan.
Peter Graham
Durban North
