We know government is committed to creating employment and sustainable development for the people of South Africa. We wholeheartedly support it in these endeavours.
However, we agree with the Endangered Wildlife Trust that the proposal for the Wild Coast N2 toll road are flawed in a number of substantive areas and unacceptable in its current form.
As stated in the Record of Decision: "This proposed project aims to provide a limited access, high speed national route." While this might benefit through traffic and the trucking industry, we are convinced that it will be to the detriment of the impoverished people of Pondoland.
It is clear that the Wild Coast Engineering Consortium's proposal is largely profit-motivated with little consideration for people of Pondoland and their need for infrastructure that will aid their development, such as tarred roads to hospitals.
In its present form the N2 toll road proposal is not a solution for the people of Pondoland and their invaluable environmental resources.
We also cannot follow the logic that by building this road, the open cast sand dune mining proposals at Xolobeni will be turned down. The mining requires a road to truck the ore to the smelter. The proposed N2 toll road will run within a few kilometres of the mine and will provide the road that is needed.
We do not believe that from a social or economic aspect the routing of this proposed road is right. We are also highly alarmed from an environmental point of view. Economic development in this region is dependent on improved agricultural infrastructure and eco-tourism development. The Wild Coast is one of the most magnificent and unspoilt coastlines in the world. It also harbours a botanical centre of endemism. Even if this road is to skirt the edge of the centre, the inevitable influx of people, deforestation, alien plant invasion, overgrazing and erosion are the natural consequences of building a road. It is also clear that the road will hinder rather than aid eco-tourism as its route impinges on ecotourist centres and would prevent the expansion of the presently miniscule Mkambati nature reserve into a major nature reserve and tourist attraction.
We therefore appeal to government to rethink this scheme and come forward with a proposal that respects the integrity of the people of the region and their natural resources. It therefore seems that the appointment of a commission to conduct wide- ranging hearings on development possibilities would be the best way forward.
We certainly do not believe that we should go ahead with the Record of Decision as signed by the Director General of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and are shocked that he has done so at the start of the festive season. This has effectively undermined due democratic process and is preventing a wide ranging response.
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