News Archive
Violence erupts over ‘Amazulu’
Released on 05/12/2008
Police used pepper-spray and rubber bullets to disperse 3,000 people who had closed off a section of a highway near Durban, South Africa, in protest against proposals for a US$4 billion theme park called Amazulu (pictured).
The protestors from the Macambini community in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), claim that 8,500 families will have to be ejected from their ancestral lands to make way for the Dubai-based Ruwaad Group’s 16,500-hectare Amazulu World project.
According to South Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspapers, early morning traffic was brought to a standstill yesterday as protestors burned tractor tyres and logs, and threw stones at cars on the N2 highway between KwaDukuza and Richards Bay.
The protests were specifically targeted at the refusal of Premier Sbu Ndebele to respond to a memorandum handed in to his office last week objecting to the scheme.
The memorandum had accused Ndebele of “trying to steal the land belonging to the people of Macambine to sell it to the Dubai people for his own benefit”. It gave him an ultimatum of seven days to withdraw the Ruwaad project.
No response came and the community sprang into action, attempting to close the N2 highway. However, Macambini claimed the police reaction to their protests was excessive.
Macambini community leader Khanyisani Shandu told South Africa’s Sowetan newspaper, which has an office in KZN, that: “Fifteen people were arrested by the police and 12 had to be taken to hospital for serious injuries. They were fired on by the police.”
Shandu accused police of using “live ammunition” and said KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele “has declared war and ordered police to shoot innocent people who are only defending what is rightfully theirs”.
Local police claimed that only five people had been arrested and that the force had been justified. Police spokesman Superintendent Vincent Mdunge told Sowetan newspaper that it had been necessary to quell the “very violent” protests of about 3,000 people who had set up barricades at several bridges along the N2 freeway.
Mdunge said the police initially used pepper spray to try to disperse the protesters. When that failed, they used rubber bullets.
According to Ruwaad, Amazulu World will create more than 200,000 new jobs and increase tourism in the region by almost 40 per cent. The developer claims that millions of tourists will flock to a development that boasts unparalleled facilities in Africa.
Ruwaad’s plans for Amazulu World include Africa’s largest shopping complex, Africa’s largest ‘lifestyle community’, South Africa’s first dedicated education and health village, the most comprehensive and advanced sports village development in Africa, residential dwellings, hotels, spas, a marina, nature reserves and community facilities.
Ruwaad is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dubai 9 Group, a UAE-based investment company with investments across various industry sectors around the world. Dubai 9 Group is one of the three founding members of Enshaa Holdings. Enshaa, through Emirates Sunland, is developing and managing the Palazzo Versace Resort on Australia’s Gold Coast; the Palazzo Versace Resort in Dubai; the 80-storey D1 Tower, the White Bay master-planned community in Umm Al Quwain, the Emirates Financial Towers in the Dubai International Financial Centre; and the Karachi Financial Towers in Pakistan.
