Portfolio Committee Presentations, 2006

Linda Ensor

CAPE TOWN - Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has criticised an environmental impact report for the National Ports Authority's R3,2bn expansion of Cape Town's container terminal as "flawed" and "irresponsible".

He announced yesterday that he had set aside his previous authorisation for the project to expand the terminal's container stacking area on the basis of objections raised by environmental experts and property owners.

But authority CEO Kgomotso Philele said the long delay in getting the environmental green light was having severe implications for Cape Town harbour.

Its container terminal was operating at about 110%-115% capacity and the expansion was "absolutely critical", Philele said.

He said the delay was limiting the harbour's growth as a transshipment hub. It had also pushed up costs for the project from the initial R2,6bn to about R3,2bn.

The danger was that ship owners would just bypass Cape Town to avoid the delays, Philele said.

The expansion will involve a reclamation of a 300m stretch of land from the water's edge to the container terminal. This will increase the container terminal surface by about 42ha. It will also involve dredging the harbour to allow for bigger vessels.

Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin emphasised in briefing Parliament's portfolio committee on public enterprises earlier this week that the time-consuming process of environmental impact assessments was "problematic".

He said they "were holding up some of our investments".

His views echoed those of Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who has also complained about the delay environmental impact assessments were having on the housing-delivery programme.

Van Schalkwyk has asked for more information to meet the objections to the proposed expansion, and said he would give a decision within two months of receiving the additional reports.

He criticised the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - commissioned by the authority to undertake an environmental assessment - for its report, which he said failed to deal with all aspects and reflected "a serious breach of responsibility". Its report lacked critical information and was technically limited, the minister said.

Van Schalkwyk said he accepted the need for an expansion of the terminal and the concerns of experts over beach erosion and its impact on coastal communities; beach nourishment; and the impact on sensitive ecosystems and local residents. He said more work was required to address these problems.

The minister called on the authority to investigate other inland solutions and proceed with the reclamation proposal with appropriate mitigating measures.

Appeals against the expansion were lodged by the owners of the Dolphin Beach and Woodbridge developments.

They argued that there was no need for expansion as the predicted turnover in containers was overstated and alternatives were available.

They also warned of polluting emissions from ship engines and beach erosion.

Experts appointed by Van Schalkwyk advised that there were potentially significant gaps in the report which failed to identify all sensitive areas.