By Brian Hayward

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is holding top-secret meetings with developers of the beleaguered R10-billion Madiba Bay Leisure Park, earmarked for 5400 hectares of land along Marine Drive, in the hopes of reviving the massive project.

Well-placed municipal sources have confirmed that although the lease for the land was controversially cancelled by municipal manager Graham Richards almost a year ago, shortly before he took special leave while accusations of mismanagement against him were investigated, acting municipal manager Elias Ntoba has resumed meetings with developers East Cape Showcase.

East Cape Showcase chief operating officer Johann Dreyer said plans for the project – which would take five to 10 years to be fully realised, and create 29000 temporary jobs and 6000 permanent positions – were back on track and the financial backers “are still interested”.

“We are talking about how to get the project back on track (with the municipality). That’s what everyone wants. We are talking about remedies,” he said, adding that meetings had also been held with Economic Development and Environmental Affairs MEC Mcebisi Jonas, who “has promised his full co-operation”.

The department last year turned down a R30-million environmental impact assessment (EIA) submitted over several years by East Cape Showcase for the project, in a move which Dreyer has insisted was a result of Richards’s interference, after he wrote a letter to the department stating the municipality did not support the initiative.

“We are resubmitting the documents for the EIA,” said Dreyer.

Confirmation of the talks comes despite an official denial by Ntoba that the plans were being revisited, through spokesman Kupido Baron.

But Baron did not divulge the nature of the meetings with East Cape Showcase, while questions to communications head Roland Williams regarding the status quo of the land’s lease went unanswered.

In June last year Richards was publicly reprimanded by senior ANC city officials for cancelling East Cape Showcase’s lease for the land – in effect scuppering the project – because he failed to consult the council on the issue beforehand.

He has subsequently come under fire in an audit of his actions as municipal manager, compiled by Minnaar Niehaus Attorneys and Ramathe Fivas Forensic and Investigative Accounting Services.

In a copy of the audit leaked to The Herald in February, Richards is accused of pressuring Dreyer to make a piece of prime land available to “personal friend” businessman Gavin Watson, and cancelling the lease for the land – which the audit claims he had no authority to do – when Dreyer refused.

He is also charged with rejecting an offer by Dreyer to build an R80-million by-pass road near the development, despite the fact that the council had resolved to accept the offer.

His “acrimonious” manner potentially destroyed the relationship between Dreyer and the municipality, the report claims.

Dreyer said he had also enlisted the support of the ANC. “It’s all about delivery and we have the full support of the ANC,” he said, adding the original funders were “still open to the plan”.

Dreyer is also busy enlisting the services of Israeli agricultural specialists to help with the planning of the park’s “agricultural village” which will see the construction of eco-friendly homes and communal gardens where residents will be encouraged to grow their own organic foods and sell any surplus back to the park.

First mooted in the early 2000s, the Madiba Bay Leisure Park will be one of the biggest developments for the city.

Source: The Herald