September 14, 2003

By Margie Inggs

Durban - The establishment of a world-class indigenous botanic garden on the controversial 64ha piece of land adjoining Umhlanga's fragile Hawaan Forest would have an estimated R300 million annual spin-off for Durban's economy, environmentalists said on Friday.

The land belongs to Hawaan Investments, a property development company that bought the site from the Durban Country Club for R22.5 million to build a R250 million housing estate.

"Profit from the 200-unit estate would benefit only the developers, while putting unnecessary strain on the ancient ecosystem which is an asset belonging to the entire community," said Dave Henry, the chairman of the joint venture between the Umhlanga branch of the Wildlife and Environment Society of SA and the Natal Coast branch of the Botanical Society of SA.

However, Pat Naicker, the managing director of Hawaan Investments, challenged this assumption.

"While the vision of creating a botanic garden to rival Kirstenbosch is a good idea, this is not the right site for it as the surrounding infrastructure is already clogged with traffic and is inadequate to cater for the number of visitors an attraction like that would draw.

"It would be far more suitable to site a botanic garden near the Sibaya Casino being constructed at Umdloti, where infrastructure is being developed."

Henry said, however, that the main aim in wanting to establish a botanic garden was to act as a buffer between development and the oldest and most valuable part of the forest.

"The 125ha Hawaan forest and surrounding 344ha nature area contain over 140 species of trees, many unique to the area, compared with just 75 in the whole of Europe ... the area around Sibaya comprises mostly cane land."

Access would also not be a problem as a road leading from the N2 would bring traffic in and would not create any capacity problem.

"We estimate that a botanic garden would draw about 300 000 visitors a year ... which would not put undue pressure on the infrastructure," he said.

Henry said a 30ha to 40ha botanic garden, which aimed to become one of the top 10 in the world, would cost about R20 million to establish and would create a "few hundred" direct jobs, as well as thousands of indirect jobs in the tourism industry.

John van Rooyen, the operations director of Holiday Inn KwaZulu-Natal's Southern Sun Timeshare Resorts, said the hotels would support the project as part of their promotion and entertainment programme.

Naicker said the housing estate would create several thousand jobs over the envisaged 15-month construction period, which would be launched immediately if development was approved. A couple of hundred permanent jobs would also be created. Access to the forest would be strictly limited.

Rubbish, alien plants and traps had already been cleared from the area.

The department of agriculture and environmental affairs is due to publish its environmental impact assessment record tomorrow.

A decision by the Development Facilitation Act tribunal, which put the brakes on the development in May at the request of eThekwini city manager Mike Sutcliffe, is expected between September 29 and October 1.

Sutcliffe was to address a public meeting in Umhlanga yesterday to report the findings of a council-appointed task team, which has been researching the concept of a botanic garden on the site for the past two-and-a-half months. However, the announcement was being made after going to press.

"There is a need to conserve our natural heritage and this may be a unique opportunity to do so," Sutcliffe said at the time the development was halted.

Should the record of decision go against the environmentalists, they would take the matter on appeal, Henry said.

Sarah Allan, the manager of environmental impact management for the department of agriculture and environmental affairs, said all objections were being taken into consideration.

The problem was likely to continue unless pressure could be brought on politicians through the chapter five amendments to the National Environmental Management Act. It would be a year before the amendments were carried through to the new regulations.