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Coega
COEGA itself is a good place to start, everyone has
heard of Coega, or the Port of Nqura as it is also
referred to, but how many people know why it was chosen
as an IDZ (Industrial Development Zone).
Well, it all goes back to the 1990's and involves the
Arms Deal. The story would make an excellent soap
opera, involving money, bribery, intrigue, corruption,
false promises, with an international
twist.......................
Lets start at the very beginning here.
Coega and the Arms Procurement Deal: A Chronology.
It starts from 1995.....
Whose money is it, read all about it here.
Coega and Accountability: Private Policy Implementation
with Public Funds?
Read all about the intrigue here.
Coega, Conflicts of interest and the Arms Deal
Democracy, or not.
The Coega Project: A test of Constitutional Democracy
Legal, or not.
Legal Mandate?
Lets kick all obstacles out of the
way.
Government and CDC resort to coercion to fast-track
Coega
Questions, questions, questions.
Request for information on Coega IDZ and Harbour
But, alas, no answers.
Notice of Internal Appeal
Finally, 6 months down the line,
some answers.
Direct response and more
Appendices accompanying response
This takes us up to 2001. As
at that date, no jobs, no investors.
We are now in 2007, still no jobs,
and as for investors, well there's
Alcan......................maybe.
And in the meantime.........Coega
CEO Earns more than Mbeki
What have we basically learnt from
all this, apart from 'don't count your chickens until
they hatch'. Well, the CDC is a government
organisation with the privileges of a private company,
many of those involved in the arms deal are/were
involved in the CDC. Without major investment, the
CDC, and by association the government, are in deeper
horse manure than the depth of the Port of Nqura.
So ask yourself this question, is
the government going to mess up a deal that is going to
save the situation by worrying about a little thing like
the environment, I don't think so.
Quote of the year should go to CDC
communications manager's “The government wouldn‘t allow
Coega to go ahead if it would be of any harm to the
environment.” Yeah, right. My
first question when the Port of Nqura(Coega) was
mentioned was, why do we need another port so close
[20kms]?.
This is a picture
of Coega, taken from the hill overlooking the PE Harbour.
And
just in case you cannot see how close it is to PE
Harbour.....
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