By Donwald Pressly

The new international La Mercy Airport project needed to be driven as expeditiously as possible and the new African National Congress provincial government would like to see the first bricks laid by April 2005 and the project completed by 2009, says new KwaZulu Natal Finance MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu.

Interviewed by I-Net Bridge, Mabuyakhulu tied the project closely to the May

15 decision regarding the host country of the World Cup in 2010. "We (the provincial government) would like to see the airport up and running by 2009," said the new MEC, whose party won a tight race against the Inkatha Freedom Party for control of the province in the recent provincial election.

Mabuyakhulu, who is vacating the portfolio of public works to take on his new post - which includes economic affairs under which the plans for a new international airport in Durban falls - has already sparked a row after he issued a notice in the provincial government gazette announcing his intention to expropriate land at La Mercy, north of Durban.

The Airports Company of South Africa, which administers the existing Durban International Airport, owns the La Mercy land - on which will be built the King Shaka International Airport.

Mabuyakhulu steers clear of discussion on a protracted legal battle which may arise over this expropriation, preferring to dwell on the need for an international airport which can cope with the requirements of Durban being the central city of South Africa hosting the World Cup.

He said the FIFA technical committee had been "highly impressed" with the infrastructure in Durban and in particular the International Convention Centre.

"We know now through the grapevine that if South Africa succeeds as we hope it will on May 15 that they would want to use the convention centre as the World Cup headquarters."

A truly international airport should not take more than five years to build, he said. "We think that we are now at a stage where we can move with speed in terms of dealing with the matter." He noted that the airport would serve to open up the province - and South Africa - further to global competitiveness. "There are immense opportunities for growth here."

While noting that he had been in office only a week or so, he would be meeting with provincial La Mercy/King Shaka project managers in the provincial government "to give me a briefing at the technical level".

Discussions would also be held about the timing of tendering processes.

He noted that National Treasury approval was also needed for the project but noted that he and new Premier S'bu Ndebele would be deeply involved in attracting local and international players to the project - and would be involved in lobbying for the project, which he acknowledged had been on the backburner until recently.

Mabuyakhulu said he was not certain at this stage if the entire project would be managed by one company which would subcontract projects to other companies or whether the project as a whole would be divided up into separate components - such as the building of runways, hangers and required buildings.

"All I know is that we can't work at a snail's pace. We have to run at 200 kilometres an hour," he said.

I-Net Bridge 06 May 2004