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From
the East Griqualand Herald Wild Coast will be destroyed. Bishop Geoff Davies of Kokstad said. "The toll road will not benefit the local people of Pondoland. I was with the king of Pondoland, King Sigcawu recently and he is most concerned about the effects of the toll road. He was not consulted in any way about the whole issue. He sees only outsiders coming in to make money out of local resources." Bishop Davies also posed the question on how the local people would gain access to the toll road. The Bishop said that the various conservation interests had suggested the upgrading of the existing road sections that would allow ecologically sensitive Wild Coast areas to be bypassed by the new road. Shock over Government Toll Road Decision Cathy Kay Wildlife and Environment Society of Southern Africa (WESSA) National Director: Conservation, commented. "This means good-bye to the Wild Coast as we know. The same Wild Coast identified by the United Nations as one of only 200 Eco-regions of global significance. We can now say hello to the new KZN South Coast ribbon type development. It means good-bye to the unique Wild Coast Centre of Endemism and also the formerly proposed Pondoland National Park. It means, in effect, the government is giving the go ahead to the Wild Coast titanium-mining project. It means that NGO's concerned with environmental conservation can now categorically state that government is getting into bed with big business. WESSA has campaigned vigorously for an 85km section of the road between Port Edward and Port St Johns to be rerouted inland via Bizana, Holy Cross, Flagstaff Lusikisiki and Umtata. This would have resulted in the new road bypassing the environmentally sensitive region of the Wild Coast. N2 toll road in Wild Coast is enviro-vandalism |
Authorisation of the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Road. The National Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) has authorised the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road project in terms of Sections 9 and 10 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations and Sections 22(3) of the Environment Conservation Act (No 73 of 1989). In terms of the Regulations, formal appeals regarding the authorisation can be directed in writing to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. A signed and certified appeal questionnaire, which must accompany any appeals, can be obtained by email from cveeden@ozone.pwv.gov.za More info can be found at www.n2wcc.co.za or at www.nra.co.za
New
Toll Road opens "a Corridor of Corruption." The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism's green light go ahead for the construction of the controversial new toll road from Port Edward to East London has come as a bitter blow to those towns and communities situated along the current N2 national roads between Port Shepstone and Umtata. They include Paddock, Harding, Kokstad, Brooks Nel, Mount Ayliff, Mount Frere, Qumbu and Umtata. If historic precedent is anything to go by, towns situated on national routes, which are overtaken and bypassed by new routes - as will happen in this case - tend to stagnate. Clive Ferguson, manager of the Kokstad Chamber of Business, says that the toll road, to be built at and estimated cost of R3.1 billion will open a corridor of corruption bedeviled by health hazards, litter problems and the creation of new squatter settlements. He raised other points: Will the mining company vehicles pay toll road fees? Is the road under specified for the long articulated vehicles that will use the new road? How can an Australian company carry on a business in South Africa - open cast mining involving dune destruction that is banned in their country? "No income deriving from the tolling of the road will revert to the local population and little local labour will be employed. But the local community will have to deal with the consequences the health hazards that inevitably follow in the wake of long distance transport drivers." |
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