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Brian Molefe recently stated that Salisbury Island would be used for the expansion of Durban harbour. But just yesterday the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, stated her intention to turn Salisbury Island into a base for anti-piracy operations. It is clear that Mr Molefe and Minister Sisulu are not on the same page here.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) fully supports the expansion of Durban harbour as it will increase our export capacity and help to grow the economy and create jobs. The sensible solution is to purchase the old Durban airport from South African Airways (SAA) and to use that land for Durban harbour’s expansion.

This should form part of our infrastructure expansion project and the money could therefore be sourced from the billions Minister Gordhan has set aside for infrastructure development.

It is vitally important that we get this right. Good infrastructure is a prerequisite to growing the economy, creating jobs and improving people’s lives. Key players such as Transnet, Eskom, the Department of Public Enterprises and other government role players all need to work together to maximise the efficiency of our infrastructure build programme.