AmaMpondo defy mega-bridge row pressure.
THE AMAMPONDO COMMUNITY’S fight against the proposed multi-billion-rand N2 Wild Coast toll road that will cut a brutal swathe across their pristine territory continues.
The world-renowned environmental lawyer representing them, Cormac Cullinan, believes that the latest strategy of Sanral (South African National Road Agency Ltd) to nullify their opposition, is to forge ahead with the construction of two mega bridges at a cost of R3,5 billion [sure to be an underestimate. – Ed] so that any court may be obliged to approve the completion of the road rather than leave the vast costly structures as white elephants in the middle of nowhere.
Once the bridges are under construction, the contested road will effectively become a fait accompli before the matter gets to court. Such a strategy would be in line with Sanral’s past policy of consistently ignoring the needs, interests and views of the local inhabitants.
But, Sanral is messing with the wrong people, says Cormac Cullinan, director of the firm Cullinan & Associates Inc and CEO of EnAct International, an environmental governance consultancy.
“Sanral has not even shown the communities exactly where the road will go, nor discussed relocation plans with the people. They just came in and secretly put steel pegs on people’s land. I have been told of pegs even being put into graves. The communities are furious about it,” said Cullinan.
Cullinan & Associates brought a court application in 2012 to have the environmental authorisation for the road reviewed and set aside. “But Sanral has just adopted delaying tactics and it’s now clear their strategy is to go ahead and build the two bridges before the court rules on whether or not the environmental authorisation was granted lawfully.”
Denne historien er fra August 2017-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Denne historien er fra August 2017-utgaven av Noseweek.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
Panel Beater De Luxe
Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Everybody Drinks Corona
I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
Bush school – A memoir
OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.
