New Durban-to-Jozi route under fire

File photo: Marilyn Bernard

File photo: Marilyn Bernard

Published Jul 29, 2015

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Durban - Plans to shorten the main Durban-to-Johannesburg freeway via a new Sanral toll route are likely to destroy more than 1 600 jobs and cost the Harrismith economy up to R890 million a year in lost revenue.

The plan to build a new toll plaza and multibillion-rand bypass route over the Drakensberg mountains was also likely to derail plans to establish a new “inland port” and logistics hub at Harrismith that aimed to create up to 29 000 new jobs.

These are some of the conclusions by economist Mike Schussler’s Economists dotcoza consultancy group and other specialists who were asked to review plans for the proposed De Beers Pass route that would bypass Harrismith via a new mountain tunnel route.

Schussler’s group said while the by-pass route would cut 14km off the current N3 route though Van Reenen’s Pass, it would come at a heavy cost to Harrismith, Van Reenen, Swinburne and Warden - mainly from a drop in fuel sales, truck repairs and food sales.

“The economic case for by-passing Harrismith looks extremely weak. Jobs will be lost in a relatively large regional centre without much hope of rebuilding those jobs... South Africa is already struggling to create jobs and a scheme that destroys job opportunities may not be what the Free State or the country needs at present.”

The group noted that there were plans to create a new special economic zone and Harrismith Logistics Hub flagship project that could reduce the cost of freight and traffic congestion on the country’s busiest national road.

“It is clear that a change in the N3 highway to bypass Harrismith will, in all likelihood, result in the death of the transport hub in Harrismith,” said Schussler’s group, which described the Sanral project as “an economic dead-weight loss”.

Cormac Cullinan, a Cape Town attorney leading a fightback against the De Beers Pass project on behalf of the Harrismith Business Forum, said Sanral’s specialist consultants had suggested that the route would not affect the proposed Tsiame special economic zone or Harrismith Logistical Hub.

Cullinan said this conclusion was “incomprehensible” as the hub was dependent on traffic converging through Harrismith.

If the Sanral proposal went ahead, most of the 29 000 new jobs from the new hub and special economic zone were unlikely to come about.

Harrismith Business Forum chief executive Ben Deysel said there was overwhelming opposition to “this Sanral ego-trip” and the forum would take whatever action necessary to halt the new route.

Lochner Marais, a professor of development studies at the University of the Free State, said previous studies commissioned by Sanral suggested the by-pass would only cause 30 job losses and was unlikely to harm the town’s economy.

Marais said he found some of these conclusions to be ”astounding” and felt that job losses predicted by Schussler’s group and the Urban-Econ group were more accurate.

Economists dotcoza estimated between 747 and 652 direct job losses, between 1 663 and 1 416 direct and indirect job losses, along with direct revenue losses in Harrismith of between R761m to R890m.

They said Sanral specialists estimated that the De Beers route would lead to a “national economic benefit” of about R165m a year, mainly from reduced operating costs for heavy trucks.

But Schussler’s group said this calculation did not seem to take into account the expected new toll fees of about R200 a truck that would be levied at a new toll plaza near the town of Warden.

Transport economist Bernal Floor said studies commissioned by Sanral also seemed to have ignored the cost implications of maintaining two duplicate freeways in the vicinity of Harrismith.

The notion that this could be economically justified was difficult for most of the communities and the public to accept, he said.

The Mercury

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