Major projects in KwaZulu-Natal
New national fibre-optic network
• Value of project: Approximately R2-billion
• Progress: The international cable has landed
at Mtunzini, but connectivity is yet to be
rolled out nationally
The small town of Mtunzini, on KwaZulu- Natal’s North Coast, is destined to play a big role in helping transform South Africa’s telecommunications sector. It is at this fisherman’s paradise, just south of Richards Bay, that the much-anticipated Seacom cable landed in South Africa. The first phase of the cable network on land will link the city of Durban to the city of Johannesburg.
Seacom is a high-capacity fibre-optic 1 280Gbps cable that will provide an alternative for telecommunications and Internet service providers who previously had to use the Sat-3 cable. Sat-3 is controlled by Telkom and lands at Melkbosstrand, just north of Cape Town. The Seacom cable stretches 15 000km along Africa’s east coast, ultimately connecting the continent to India and Europe. The system has 10 times the designed capacity of its West Coast rival. Laying the cable presented some particular challenges, especially when dealing with pirates off the coast of Somalia, and this resulted in some delays. The project has been described as an ‘engineering marvel’.
The cable company is run by a consortium that includes entities controlled by Johann Rupert, the Aga Khan and Andile Ngcaba, the former director general of the national Department of Communications, but it is the existence of a second network operator (SNO) – giving competition to the state-owned Telkom – that is driving this major project. Neotel is the SNO that needs the bandwidth.
Neotel has gone into a joint venture with mobile-phone company MTN in an initiative to build a national 5 000km fibre-optic network. In this way the bandwidth arriving via Seacom will reach the rest of the country. In December 2008, Neotel was granted a debt facility to finance this programme, while MTN has sufficient funds to cover its share. Neotel has already built a receiving station at Mtunzini and contracts have been signed with various contractors to dig the trenches and lay the cables.
The first leg of the cable-laying operation
is being overseen by Plessey. A company
called Dark Fibre Africa is laying hundreds of
kilometres of ‘neutral’ cable – which they will
rent out telecommunications operators – all over
South Africa, with about 180km already having
been dug and laid in the Durban area. One of the
shareholders in the Seacom cable company,
Johann Rupert’s investment-holding firm Venfin,
is also a shareholder in Dark Fibre Africa.
www.seacom.mu
Dube TradePort
• Value of project: R7.2-billion
• Progress: On track to run trials in January 2010 and be operational in mid-2010
The Dube TradePort (DTP) is an inland multinodal transport, trade and logistics hub that is being constructed 30km north of Durban. The DTP will play a major role in expanding the economy of KwaZulu-Natal for decades to come.
A major component of the DTP is the construction of a new international airport alongside designated zones that are intended to stimulate agriculture, ICT and export enterprises. The King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) at La Mercy will replace the current airport, which is situated to the south of the city. Critical to the success of the DTP is its location between South Africa’s biggest container terminal (Richards Bay) and the continent’s largest deep-water harbour at Durban. In addition, the well-serviced site, within the borders of Ilembe District Municipality, is on the national N2 highway that runs up and down the coast and has a dual-line railway link.
Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and Dube TradePort have tasked a construction consortium known as Ilembe with designing and building the international airport. Ilembe has WBHO and Group Five as its major shareholders. Altogether the site comprises 3 000 hectares, but the first phase will only encompass 800 hectares. Planners are thinking as far ahead as 2060 when it comes to volumes of passenger traffic for the international airport and volumes of goods to be imported and exported through the DTP.
Existing industrial areas within Ilembe District Municipality are located near the DTP site at iSithebe Industrial Estate and KwaDukuza Industrial Area.
KwaZulu-Natal already enjoys significant advantages as a transport and logistics hub with its proximity to the populous, prosperous and productive Gauteng province. Two ports that deal with more than 90 million tonnes of cargo and a well-developed road and rail network combine to cement that advantage. The DTP will take the province’s capabilities in this sphere to a new and higher level.
In addition to the airport, Dube TradePort will
have the following components:
• Trade zone: Ten hectares including an
agricultural zone and light industry
• Support zone: A conference centre and hotel
• IT zone or cyberport: An information and
telecommunications hub
• Trade port, including a large cargo-processing
and -handling facility with cold storage and
courier services.
More than 3 000 people are working on the DTP
site, and it is anticipated that, when the airport
is functional, some 6 000 jobs will be created. In June 2009 work was said to be on schedule,
with bulk infrastructure in place for the zones,
and most of the electrical cabling work completed.
Some estimates put the projected taxes that
will be generated by concerns in the DTP at
about R4-billion, while overall projections of how
much the DTP will generate in additional GDP
suggest a figure as high
as R20.5-billion.
www.dubetradeport.co.za
King Shaka International Airport
• Aim: To provide world-class passenger
and cargo air transport facilities
• Progress: On track to be operational
in mid-2010
Durban’s current airport can deal with 4.7 million passenger landings in year. The new King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) will have the capacity to accommodate 7.5 million by the time it is fully functional in 2015.
The 3.7km runway will be able to accommodate much bigger aircraft than were able to land at the old airport, including the gigantic Airbus A380. Dube TradePort reported in June 2009 that the steel work of the 35 000-square-metre passenger terminal’s roof had been completed and 75% of roof sheeting was in place. The final layer of asphalt was due to be laid on the primary runway, while taxiways were receiving their second layers. A multistorey car park, the ACSA offices and the control tower were at very advanced stages of construction.
The base of the runways at KSIA is stabilised with cement although the surface is covered with asphalt. Such is the demand for cement on the site that Natal Portland Cement has established batch plants nearby.
Another company to take up a new location because of the amount of work being generated at KSIA and DTP is architectural firm Osmond Lange Architects & Planners. The company has retained its Westville office, but part of the work now being done at the company’s Umhlanga office entails keeping a close eye on this megaproject.
Research show that potential for direct flights from KSIA exists for the following routes: Dubai, London, Frankfurt, Singapore and Mumbai.
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