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'R1bn property sold for pittance'
10/09/2008 22:00 - (SA)
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance is looking for answers from the Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin on what action
is to be taken against officials whose blunders led to 33 hectares of prime development land in the Port Elizabeth harbour being sold for on R300 000 rand, although it is currently worth nearly a billion rand.
The sale was concluded, according to Eddie Trent - an Eastern Cape DA MP - to reverse an inexplicable error which saw around a third of the area used for piling up manganese ore and moving it on to ships, being signed away on a 70-year lease by Transnet to a bidder for a proposed casino.
The casino bidder failed in the attempt to get a casino licence, and when Transnet decided it wanted its land back - without which the manganese quay was inoperable - it faced a long uphill battle and ultimately binding arbitration.
The arbitrator's award was to give the land back to Transnet, but in return the parastatal has to provide another two pieces of land for development - freehold to the casino bidder.
"This is yet another example of how state entities have been allowed to trade recklessly with assets that historically belong to the people of South Africa," Trent said on Wednesday.
"The sooner the minister realises that the government is merely the custodian of these assets, and that it is accountable to the public for its actions with respect to them, the better.
"I will now refer all of the relevant information relating to this issue to the Special Investigation Unit. If any person or persons are found to have been incompetent, corrupt or both in the execution of this deal, then they must face the consequences of their actions. I will also pose further
parliamentary questions to Minister Erwin in order to ascertain whether any officials who were involved in this sale are facing criminal investigation or will face disciplinary action for gross incompetence."
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