"Even if market conditions were favourable, it is not realistic to expect a development of this scale and complexity to be finished in that period of time," said Durban Point Development Company spokesman Neels Brink. Five to 10 years to sell the remaining rights was realistic and compared with the time taken to complete similar projects, such as Cape Town’s Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, he said.

The Point Waterfront development was launched in 2003 to help renew the Durban city centre and develop the Point area. Hotels, apartments, retail and office developments, canals and a small-craft harbour were planned.

But Dean Macpherson, the Democratic Alliance’s economic development spokesman for eThekwini, described it as "an island of excellence in a sea of squalor".

The project had left some property investors with "serious financial loss" and it had also cost ratepayers R1bn in infrastructure and marketing costs. Mr Macpherson said there were no retail or health facilities near the development.

Mr Brink said development in the precinct had been hard hit by the global financial crisis. Also, objections and legal obstacles to the next phase "have also had the effect of unsettling investor sentiment".

Minority Front leader Amichand Rajbansi said the project was meant to promote growth, but "instead of leaving it to the professionals", the politicians took control and "took arrogant and unwise decisions".