Virginia Airport operators will approach the Durban High Court to enforce a council resolution renewing tenants' leases by 10 years.
|||Durban - Lawyers representing the Virginia Airport operators will be approaching the Durban High Court to enforce a council resolution made in October 2011, renewing the tenants’ leases by 10 years.
The two parties met in February after the city manager, S’bu Sithole, reneged on the resolution, offering the tenants month-to-month leases.
The city once again met operators in February and a verbal agreement was made that five-year leases with the option of a three-to-five-year renewal would be granted and this was to be concluded in March.
City officials once again met the operators last month and were given a two-week deadline by the operators before legal action would be pursued.
Daryl Mann, owner of Aero Natal, is heading the legal battle on behalf of the operators.
According to Mann, city officials postponed the meeting, set to be held on June 7, to Monday and changed the venue three times, after which the city manager failed to show up.
“We have the minutes which are on council letterhead from February where the city agreed to the five-year leases.
“If the city manager wants to play the entrepreneur game then he must resign from his job…” said Mann.
The DA has called for the city manager’s head, saying he has failed to honour a commitment to renew the leases.
In a statement issued yesterday the DA said it received information indicating that Sithole was leaning towards an “unsolicited bid from a private company to develop this land”.
”His public/private partnership - which would avoid the requirements to go to public tender - is worth R150 million,” the statement read. Speaking to the Daily News on Thursday, Dean Macpherson, DA economic development spokesman, said this was a “gross violation” of the city manager’s contract and that there were already development plans for the site for mixed use of residential, offices and commercial.
He said the plans and artist’s impressions were in Sithole’s office and the unnamed developer had approached the city manager’s office directly about the plan.
Macpherson said the city manager had acted unilaterally and had “gone against the council’s own resolution”.
While Macpherson was not against development, there was no point in looking at any development for the next five years or even 10 as no environmental impact assessment had been done, he said.
He said he was confident the airport operators would win their case as they had council resolutions and signed leases. The DA insisted Sithole must foot the legal bill.
Municipal spokesman Thabo Mofokeng said they were exploring different options for the site.
“We will not be blackmailed into accepting timeframes that are not in the best interest of the Municipality,” he said.
Daily News