State-owned rail-freight transport group Transnet said on Friday it has lodged a formal complaint with the press ombudsman against the Sunday Times after the paper failed to retract its report claiming that the group sold vast sea area and coastal land to foreigners when it disposed of the V&A Waterfront.
”Last night [Thursday] our lawyers lodged a formal complaint with the press ombudsman against the Sunday Times following the failure by the paper to retract its false, misleading, malicious and defamatory lead under the headline ‘Transnet Sold our Sea to Foreigners’,” Transnet said.
The Sunday Times reported two weeks ago that disposal of the landmark V&A Waterfront included the transfer of 22km of coastline and 90 square kilometres of sea to foreign investors from Dubai and London.
Transnet rejected the report a day later.
Transnet also dismissed claims that it kept vital information from certain bidders in the Waterfront deal, and that the winning bidder was allowed to increase its offer.
Chief executive Maria Ramos told reporters that the front-page report in the newspaper that Transnet ”sold our sea” was false, misleading, irresponsible and defamatory.
She said the newspaper’s map of the supposed area — a wedge covering about 90 square kilometres with its apex on Robben Island — showed the port limits, not what was sold in the R7-billion deal in 2006.
”We do not own the land under the sea,” she said. ”Transnet does not own the land within those boundaries. We do not own the land from Blouberg strand to Robben Island and from Robben Island to the Green Point lighthouse and under the sea …
”And if we don’t own the land we cannot possibly have sold it to anyone, foreign or local, and that’s just the basic reality of life.” — I-Net Bridge, Sapa