A high court tug-of-war over prime property in Port Elizabeth is turning the vision of a giant statue of Nelson Mandela into little more than a pipe dream.
Transport parastatal Transnet, which owns the land, has distanced itself in court papers from the proposed statue, saying it has “no intention of participating in the proposed development”.
The statue was proposed by a local consortium, Freedom Enterprises, four years ago. It received the backing of Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Metropole and the provincial government last year.
The provincial government believes the development — which has been publicised internationally — will re-juvenate the poverty-stricken city and create more than 9Â 000 jobs in tourism.
The statue is unique in many ways, but the main talking point has been its proposed height. It is planned to be a massive 65m high, one-and-a-half times the size of the Statue of Liberty. It will stand on a 45m plinth housing a “museum of freedom”.
The construction of the statue was scheduled to commence this year and end in 2006, according to Freedom Enterprises. The company’s chief executive, Mandla Madwara, was quoted as recently as January as saying the consortium hoped to formally launch the project on July 18 this year — to coincide with Mandela’s 86th birthday. He also said: “We will also take advantage of the occasion to announce the full package.”
This “package” was slated to include a R500-million, 600m “long walk to freedom” — the title of the Nobel Prize-winner’s autobiography — leading up to the monument. It also included an African music archive, a R260-million cruise liner terminal, a R250-million conference centre and an upmarket residential marina.
However, documents filed in the Johannesburg High Court suggest that the project’s future is bleak.
The documents form part of a year-long legal battle between Transnet and an Eastern Cape property development company, Southernport.
Southernport is suing Transnet over properties in the Port Elizabeth harbour area, the proposed site of the freedom statue.
It claims it is entitled to lease certain properties in the harbour in terms of two lease agreements signed by both parties in 1998. Southernport initially wanted to use the properties to house a casino. The casino plan fell through when the company failed to secure a licence.
The company, however, has other plans for the properties and wants Transnet to comply with the lease agreements. Its plans involve the construction of tourist and business amenities. Although in its court papers it says it does not oppose the statue, it has no agreement with Freedom Enterprises, which holds the rights to the statue development.
Transnet does not dispute the existence of the lease agreements, but is charging that they are not enforceable.
Southernport initially suffered a setback in its legal challenge when Judge Percy Blieden upheld Transnet’s “exception” plea. This involved arguing that Southernport had shown no cause.
Judge Blieden then concurred with Transnet that a particular clause in the lease agreement between Southernport and Transnet was “unenforceable because there was no agreement between the parties regarding the essential terms of a lease”.
Southernport hit back by applying for leave to appeal against the judgement, arguing that Judge Blieden had erred. Leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal was granted last September.
In April this year Southernport obtained an interim interdict preventing Transnet from developing certain parts of the Port Elizabeth harbour pending the outcome of the appeal — for which a date has not been set.
The existence of the legal dispute appears to have to have been kept a closely guarded matter by key players involved in the project.
The provincial department of arts and culture has committed R2-million to a feasibility study on the construction of the monument. A consortium, led by Atos KPMG, was appointed to conduct the study in June last year.
A draft feasibility report was handed to the municipality at the end of last year. News of the court drama is the first indication that all is not well with the project.
In its court papers, lodged in April last year, Southernport claims that the planned statue development would violate the lease agreements it has with Transnet.
In its defence, Transnet said it was not party to the planned development. In a sworn affidavit on behalf of Transnet, Rustim Keraan, port infrastructure manager in Port Elizabeth, said the parastatal “has not and will not conclude” any contracts with the developers of the freedom statue.
Keraan said the Nelson Mandela Metropole and Freedom Enterprise “are propagating the freedom statue project without having secured any rights to the land in question”.
“Transnet cannot prevent third parties from proposing development plans for the land in question. However … such third parties will not be able to implement any such plans without Transnet’s participation. Transnet has no intention of participating in the proposed development,” Keraan said.
Keraan said the site that has been identified for the construction of the freedom statue is subject to existing lease agreements with oil and fishing interests.
Freedom Enterprises has claimed in the past that a petrol-tank farm and an ore dump on the proposed site will be relocated to Coega, freeing up 65ha for development.
In court papers, Transnet disputed this. It says the petrol-tank farm is subject to a long-standing lease agreement with Shell. “The lease in respect of the tank farm has been in existence for decades, and it will expire in 2014. No decision has at this stage been taken as to whether the lease will be renewed or whether the tank farm will be relocated.”
Attempts to contact Madwara this week proved fruitless.