Moosa gives Coega haul road the green light

Ed Richardson ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS and tourism minister Mohamed Valli Moosa has given the green light to the continued construction of a haul road between a Coega quarry and the port of Ngqura. This follows objections to the haul road orchestrated by Cape Town-based environmental group, the Southern African Environmental Project (SAEP). The group claimed that work on the haul road was illegal. According to a report in the Eastern Cape Province Herald, Moosa, in his letter to US lawyer and head of SAEP Norton Tennille, says the Coega Development Corporation is complying with "the necessary environmental legislation and is still obliged to do so in the future. "I am not of the opinion that the entire Coega Industrial Development Zone should be held to ransom by a six kilometre haul road that is temporary in nature and located within the town-planning scheme." Work started on the haul road in February 2001. Speaking at the official sod-turning ceremony, Portnet port authority division ceo Siyabonga Gama said Portnet had budgeted R25-million for the haul road and preparatory work, which includes site clearance and the erection of a security fence.