27 October 2022

Oceans Umhlanga, a mixed-use development which its developers say will be worth R4.3bn, will be completed, regardless of attempts by neighbouring property owners to halt its construction.
The property owners which include Cast Arena Trade and Invest and Flamingo Rocks, among others, want the authorities to confirm whether or not the development is legal. They are concerned that if it goes ahead, it will damage not only their reputation but also the node overall, leading to a lack of further investment in Umhlanga.
Umhlanga has attracted billions of rand worth of investment in the past five to ten years as the node becomes the premium live, work and play in Durban. The man behind Oceans Umhlanga is Vivan Reddy, a close friend of Jacob Zuma, who helped finance the former president’s Nkandla residential complex.
Oceans Umhlanga will include a Radisson Blu hotel and a super-regional shopping centre and Reddy has promised it will be completed after it was announced more than six years ago. He said it would be the largest mixed-use development in South Africa.
Reddy and his team received an interdict a few weeks ago to freeze the construction of Oceans Umhlanga. But Reddy’s lawyers have now responded, saying that halting the construction could leave the developers with indefensible damages actions and irreparable damage to reputation. Oceans said this in an affidavit which it filed in opposition to the urgent court bid. The applicants wanted the interdict pending further court action to determine the legality of the project.
The neighbouring property owners say that the approvals granted by the eThekwini Municipality to Oceans Umhlanga and other related entities to build the hotel, shopping centre and residential units in terms of the Spatial Land Use Management Act (Spluma) have lapsed, and that certificates of occupation issued pursuant to them are invalid.
They also argued that Oceans Umhlanga’s developers reneged on a specific condition that it would build an underground public transport facility to accommodate buses and taxis on the development site. This would replace one that existed there prior to the sale of the land.
Estate agency Pam Golding Properties is marketing Oceans Umhlanga’s residential units.
Picture supplied by Pam Golding