Building at KSIA to begin late this year

Mate if you not connected like that you wont get anywhere anyway, no matter where u live in this world. its all about who has most influence, and that wont change...frankly in the Zimbali sense i dont see anything wrong or underhand. Mzi is merely developing a stand in zimbali and is not connected to IFA or Moreland. Regards Iyer-Rothaug, if it is the same group as i know, they are very accomplished urban designers and have played a pivotal role in many impressive projects around durban. At present they are the designers of the new pier in umhlanga and created the millenium tower on the bluff headland... i have alot of time and respect for their work. Also, i think your dream of Cato Ridge will have to drastically fade away...the following is a snippet of an article that appeared in todays Sunday Tribune "It's all systems go for the building of King Shaka International Airport and Dube Trade Port, following the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding between the KwaZulu-Natal government and other stakeholders. This means that control of the land owned by ACSA is now in the provincial governments hands and development can now proceed at a far quicker pace. EIA's will be complete by October and constuction is planned to start in February 2007. The memorandum states that DIA WILL be decomisioned in October 2009"

ja...well...some of us cant speak afrikaans at all! and also...some of us arent so pesimistic and antogonistic

interesting to read what has been going on. i was away in mauritius for 10 days and have kinda missed out on alot...A1 and all the chit chat here. Was great to fly direct Durban - Mauritius and miss the choas that is JIA. Spoke to a guy that works for Air Mauritius and he said that even though they have announced that they are increasing the durban flights to 2/week, they are looking to increase that to 4/week from Sept, with the flight carrying on to India, thereby offering direct flights between Durban and Mumbai. That sounds good But was off the point! Would be good to hear what you thought of your visit "british", hopefully the durbanites you interacted with were the lively bunch we are known to be!

saw some good picks of mr branson today.....

as always i am still perplexed as to how you find the time to put so much effort into tearing this project apart. Is this your job, or merely a side interest that you have? If it is a side interest then my god when do you find time to work...but if it is your job, what is the gain or benefit to yourself in this process? If you are merely an antagonist to the process, then i'm not surprised that they dont release papers to you. I must state that i find your comments about arabs not being popular in the rest of the world so having to come to SA as rather derogatary. With the treatment the USA and Europe has put them through, i would also look to other areas of the world to invest my money, some place where my billions are welcome and well recieved...not some place where they are gladly taken but, i'm treated like crap. I've seen the planned reuse strategy for DIA, and the present parkade fits nicely into the plans. It will either be transformed into offices, or form part of a regional shopping mall on the site...so steps have been taken.

well i dont believe in any religion but thats not the point

i love reading your posts mate...always put it matter of factly and from the business point of view. No emotion, just fact...and that is the way the airport decision should be made. It is a business decision for the betterment of Durban, KZN and south africa. I believe people need to accept that certain information will never be released to the public, and rightly so! if companies can keep info privilaged, then so can goverments on decisions such as these. Most people in durban are totally for the new airport and want it to go ahead as soon as posible! the only problem is that many people still whether it will happen this time...given that there have been so many false starts before. Hopefully we do see it rising sooner...rather than later

i dont think he denies the jobs...i just think he wants them in cato ridge, so they closer to him in pietermaritzburg :) The making of durban? how do u mean?

i hear what ur saying

Presently people fly into JIA or CPT and tend not to bother flying to DBN even ehough it has so much more to offer. Very true! I think the airport is not only a chance for Durban itself, but also for the rest of the country. Its main centres are Cape Town and Jo'burg at the moment, but the airport could help to get much more business not only to KwaZulu, but maybe to the Eastern Cape and Lesotho, too. I hope for the best! Cheers, Felix PS: Thanks british for giving all the inside information. And to chris: I know it can be hard to see things not going the way you want to, but one sometimes has to accept certain things that he/she can not change. I do believe that your problems are taking seriously and that there is a way to benefit all.

You come across very socialist in your stance...just an observation. " "british" care to validate your comment about tourists with some formal research -- PLEASE.? and explain about the necessary Tourism infrastructure once in KZN." This is one point that u fall far short on nderstanding. From a tourism aspect KZN is has the largest and most advanced tourist infrastruture in the country. CT may be the "glam" place, but in terms of overall holiday appeal, KZN has a far more varied product with advanced facilities and attractions. If you take a look at the present development portfolio of the province, you will find that a further 9000 beds are being constructed in hotel and lodge developments across the province. Large developments within zimbali and at the point and umhlanga all have large tourist related developments tied in. 9 hotels are approved or under construction in the Point, a further 2 in the Suncoast node, 5 in Umhlanga, 3 near Sibaya and 3 at Zimbali. IFA, who have partnered with Moreland in Zimbali are not stupid like u continually attempt to portray them as. They would not commit R1bn to dev in zimbali if they believed the airport would negatively affect their investment. The same goes for the R1,6bn Marriot hotel development on Umhlanga Ridge. Both these massive international investments rate the forthcoming King Shaka airport as being a major plus to their decisions to invest in durban. These are massive international corporations and i think they know what they are doing. To grow the provincial economy, tourism has been highlighted as one of the key components, and gaining direct international flights will play a massive role in achieving that. All prime tourist spots globally have easy access to the rest of the world. Take a look at Australia. All of the major cities have a selection of international flights that connect them directly to europe, Asia and the USA. Thats a format that works. Also. Have u got all the documentation? probably not. I'd imagine that "british", by actually being important to the new airport developers would. I dont think airlines would just jump into something they no little to nothing about especially in this day and age. They would have conducted there own research and also arrived at their own conclusions. Regards the masses of investment in the Joburg to Durban corridor, i find the point you bring up full of ignorance. Of course billions will be pumped into the Joburg durban corridor. If you follow industrial development, you would have noticed a shift in the SA economy over the last few years. More and more of the countries industrial output is coming from Durban. Why? simple really. Durban works well as a central hub. Goods can be mass produced for two markets from here. 1) The hinterland, mainly Gauteng 2) the export market. Many Gauteng based manufacturing firms have started moving production to durban to take advantage of this strategic position. Durban has more industrial space under construction than Gauteng and Cape Town combined at this point in time, and masses more planned. The investments into road and rail on the inland coridor is to cater for the shipment of goods between the two centres. And in reality has nothing what so ever to do with KSIA. If anything it will help get the goods from Gauteng and to Gauteng far quicker from the new airport. Also if you noticed recently, there has been a massive highway upgrade on the N2 from Spagetti junction to Umhlanga. This has created an 8/9 lane highway on the northern section, and hence show that the infrastructure is being put in place for the new airport. The same can be said of the railways. The city alone has set aside R2bn for improvements to the northern line that runs to the airport, and i'm sure some of the R370bn development budget will go towards this line too. Dont forget the artivles have also said that the majority of the R370bn will be spent in KZN and Gauteng. I also hardly see people's property values in Zimbali diminishing, i think is just scaremongering.

Re: Dube -- King Shaka
Maybe where Felix gets his ideas about the Eastern Cape and Lesotho.? Guys do yourselves a favour and have a look at ATM's at Mthata and Maseru. ? The N2 is still on ice ( and rightly so ) There is NOTHING in these areas to give rise to ANY sort of growth. WHICH ACSA airports are currently running at a LOSS.? Well, if you look at the tourism sector there is great potential in this area, not because of cultural centres like Umtata or Maseru, but because of everything in between. Just think about the beautiful coast line or the things like pony trails in Lesotho. If more people visit Durban and stay there for longer (a thing which is said to happen according to other posts), then they will look at places to go during that time. The beaches south of Durban down to the Eastern Cape border, the Drakensberg area or the way up to St. Lucia and Hluhluwe can be made within a half day by car, making it possible for tourists to spend a day or two away from Durban itself. And you might not know it, but there tourism in the Eastern Cape and Lesotho is increasing with more and more tourists discovering these 'hidden' spots! And let us all guess, where these tourists might start their journey from... Saying there "is NOTHING in these areas to give rise to ANY sort of growth" is not only impolite to those working and living there, but simply wrong. I am very disappointed that you keep on insulting other people! Felix

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