R10bn development hits legal snag

KwaZulu-Natal - The R10 billion Blythedale Coastal Resort on KZN’s North Coast is again under threat as land claimants allege that deals struck with developer Mark Taylor “tricked” them.

In papers lodged at the Land Claims Court in Randburg earlier this week, the Dube community says the original property deals with Taylor’s Blythedale Coastal Resorts (BCR), were signed without “proper authority” from the community, and settlement agreements promoted in “glowing terms and approved by the regional land claims commissioner and the minister… were proving worthless”.

The Dube clan’s consultant, Jabulani Mabaso, said the community was now “complaining they were misled by false promises of major benefits that have not materialised”. “They feel that they have been dispossessed yet again by some trickery that they do not understand.”

As a result of the clan’s action, an application by Blythedale Coastal Resorts to consolidate properties and to register a R20 million bond to pay for completed construction work on the development’s “millionaire mile” are now delayed pending a meeting between the parties and the chief land claims commissioner.

Taylor said the R20m bond application and consolidation of the properties were “perfectly normal” procedure.

“The BCR board, where members of the Dube clan are represented, agreed to pass a R20m covering bond on the property for work already completed.”

Taylor said the development company would oppose the Dube application and would file responses within a week.

Claimed

In 2007 the Dube community claimed New Guelderland Estates, a 1 000ha sugar cane estate and conservancy owned by the former chairman of the South African Sugar Association, Rodger Stewart.

In 2009 the “invalid” R400m claim was negotiated and settled by the government’s land claims department

Agreements signed between Stewart and the clan enabled the farmer to lease the sugar estate from the Dubes for five years while the development got under way. Violence erupted in May this year when Stewart was forced to flee the farm after being beaten up by “invaders” claiming to be members of the clan.

Stewart says he was forced to sign a cancellation of his lease and later was granted a court interdict preventing any further “invasions”.

In the application, Mabaso says Taylor bought a portion of the land from the clan for R194m for the coastal development in which the clan now has a 20 percent shareholding. He says they were also promised the “lion’s share” of about “10 000 permanent jobs” generated from the development, which included “mixed housing” and “free housing” for community members, as well as schools, clinics and sports facilities.

Musa Dube, who represents the community on the Blythedale Coastal Resorts board, said when they found out about the R20m bond registration he believed the “developers were going ahead with ideas we are not comfortable with”.

Stewart’s lawyer, Andre Liebenberg, said the farmer was not cited as a respondent in the court application and had not been served with the papers. - The Mercury