Nicola Jenvey

KwaZulu-Natal Correspondent

DURBAN — The much-lauded Dube Tradeport and new international airport at La Mercy, north of Durban, remains plagued by a lack of financial commitment and political infighting.

This is despite nearly a decade of promises from national and provincial government that the R1,8bn investment would become a reality by 2009. Since 1996, senior government officials have said the airport is a priority and potential economic booster for KwaZulu-Natal.

However, yesterday finance and economic development MEC Zweli Mkhize admitted during an open forum on the project that the airport remained dogged by in-fighting between the Airports Company SA (Acsa) and national and provincial governments, and that financial options were only "models still under discussion".

He could not indicate how the capital would be raised, only rehashing 10-year-old answers that "various options were under consideration", including public private partnership initiatives.

Mkhize called on the media to "be very gentle on this issue" as there were no options yet available.

The La Mercy airport has been a political hot potato since the early 1970s. In 1995 the provincial economic affairs and tourism department, Acsa and the Durban municipality established the KwaZulu-Natal International Airports Initiative as a public-private partnership to pursue developing a new international airport on the site.

An independent report released two years later supported the relocation from the current Durban airport site south of the city to La Mercy by 2006. This led to a R500m commitment from Acsa for the project and left the province carrying the can to the tune of R1,1bn.

In 1998 the Acsa board turned down the development proposals, and another review undertaken by Schipol Project Consult in 2000 indicated that relocating the airport by next year would have a R172m negative effect on KwaZulu-Natal’s economy.

Former transport minister Dullah Omah commented later that the relocation to La Mercy would "be favourably considered by government … if it makes economic and financial sense".

President Thabo Mbeki commented in his 2003 and 2004 state of the nation addresses that the La Mercy airport formed part of boosting infrastructure on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast, and that government was "in the final stages" of registering the venture as a public-private partnership.

Yesterday Mkhize said public participation in the environmental impact assessment would begin in two weeks. The Dube Tradeport company had engaged the South African Weather Service to capture data for determining the airport design, and construction would begin by next June, but he could not provide financing details.

The La Mercy facility, capable of handling 5-million passengers annually, expanding to 100-million by 2060, would be completed ahead of the 2010 World Cup, he said.

Mkhize said that when Acsa and national and provincial government met in July they resolved to work together and for Acsa to sell the La Mercy land to the provincial government for development.

Decommissioning of the Durban airport would be "discussed", taking into consideration the investments Acsa had made, he said.