2013 MARCH / Vol. 5 / No. 3 /
GA
37
Virginia Airport operators have
won their battle with the eThekwini
municipality city manager
S'bu Sithole has agreed they be
given new long-term leases.
The agreement, which needs
to be approved by the relevant
committee and the council, will
end almost a year of struggle after
Sithole reneged on the council's
agreement that the operators be issued
10-year-leases early last year. This
was after some of the operators had
already signed their new leases.
Sithole put the operators on
month-to-month leases and had
been searching for alternative
sites for the airport after receiving
various proposals for the site.
Last year he told The Mercury that
he wanted to convert the airport site
into a mixed-use development zone.
The operators refused to accept
that their leases were not valid. After
numerous attempts to discuss the
issue with the municipality, they
went the legal route, giving the city
a deadline to engage with them
before they approached the courts.
Daryl Mann, the owner of Aero
Natal and who led the legal fight for
the leases on behalf of the operators,
and his attorney met Sithole on Friday.
Through a lawyer's letter
Mann advised Sithole of the city's
legal obligation to provide for
general aviation. Representatives
of the city's legal team, as well as
the deputy mayor and economic
development head, Nomvuso
Shabalala, were also present.
Mann said he and the other
operators were not making
unreasonable demands and had, in the
meeting, agreed to an initial five-year
lease, with no option of notice from
the municipality, and then another five
years with an 18-month notice option,
provided a `suitable' alternative
site was found for the airport.
A `suitable' alternative site
meant the operators must be
satisfied with it and all research
and planning must be done.
This included environmental
impact assessments, agreement with
surrounding residents, and Civil
Aviation Authority and Air Traffic
Control approval. The site must be
able to accommodate all the operators'
requirements such as a runway, taxi
way, fuel needs, lighting, and security.
"I believe that finding another
site will be difficult, so as far as
I am concerned we have another
effective 10-year lease. But, if
they do find a suitable site, then
we are happy with the 18-month
notice to move," Mann said.
He said that although the
agreement with Sithole was, at this
stage, only verbal and in principle, the
city manager had given it his blessing.
The new leases would be effective
as of the date they were signed.
Sithole said he and the operators
had come to a "workable solution"
about the way forward, but that the
proposals agreed to by the parties
needed to be taken to committee
level and then the council.
He said he would prefer not to
discuss the issue in the media until
it had followed the process, but
added that there was now a `common
approach' on the way forward.
The process should be
finalised by the end of March. ·
Latest News on the
Virginia Airport Lease Saga
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