Chapter 6 Conceptualisation of the ‘region’ inherent in RED as exemplified in the
6.2 Notions of ‘region’ associated with the Durban Aerotropolis
6.2.3 Conceptualisations of scale of the Durban Aerotropolis
In addition to function and form of the Durban Aerotropolis in the stakeholders’
conceptualisations, thought had to go into the extent, reach and magnitude of the project. This section highlights two different kinds of conceptualisation of the scale of the Durban Aerotropolis that predominated: (i) fixed and bounded in space with defined size and a boundary, and (ii) defined by connection, loose, and thus flexible as a notion of scale. Size- defined, fixed and bounded conceptualisations are evident in Integrated Aerotropolis Strategy references to a footprint that requires differentiation between the airport city (the study area for the strategy itself) and the aerotropolis more broadly (the catchment area) (EDTEA, 2015).
As explained in the previous section on the form of the Durban Aerotropolis the airport city is characterised by commercial functions located on and immediately around the King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) site. The airside activity includes shopping mall concepts merged into passenger terminals, retail (including streetscapes and upscale boutiques), restaurants
111 (increasingly higher-end and themed), leisure (spas, fitness, recreation, cinemas and more) and culture (museums, regional art, musicians, chapels). On the landside are hotels and entertainment, office and retail complexes, convention and exhibition centres, time-sensitive goods processing, free trade zones and what is called Dube TradePort (DTP), which is the airport city’s designated area for industrial development, widely recognised as a special economic zone. These airside and landside activities are what is referred to as the inside-the- fence activities of the Aerotropolis (see Figure 6-1).
Figure 6-1 Durban airport city and the areas constituting “inside-the-fence” (Author’s own)
In the KZN Integrated Aerotropolis Strategy (EDTEA, 2015) the Aerotropolis area is referred to as the catchment area. It covers almost all of the eThekwini Municipality and some parts of iLembe and uMgungundlovu municipalities. It stretches up to the Richards Bay area in northern KwaZulu-Natal. The defining criterion for the catchment area is the concept of the one-hour travel distance from King Shaka International Airport.
The footprint depicted below in Figure 6-2 shows that the catchment area cuts across a number of municipal boundaries. The aim is to ensure that people can travel with ease between the airport and various destinations (nodes) and reduce the travel time also between the airport and
112 these various areas (EDTEA, 2015). These nodes could be places such as Howick, Pietermaritzburg, Kranskop, Eshowe, and Mandini and to some extent Port Shepstone. For this to be achieved there has to be efficient, speedy and agile ground connectivity. Government is therefore being encouraged to invest substantially in road and rail infrastructure to achieve ground connectivity and widen the KSIA catchment area. The Aerotropolis shown in Figure 6- 2 is based on the concept of a one-hour travel radius.
Figure 6-2 Durban Aerotropolis and the areas within the one-hour radius (Author’s own)
In addition to the airport city study area and the aerotropolis catchment area, the Durban Aerotropolis Masterplan speaks of the ‘core study area’ which is said to begin from the M41 adjacent to the Phoenix Township in the south and spans through to Compensation in the north in proximity to Ballito (EDTEA, 2016). The eastern boundary is the coastline, while the western boundary is defined by the P521 and P715, which includes a small but crucial portion of the Ndwedwe region. It is however stressed in the Durban Aerotropolis Masterplan that the boundaries of their identified core study area are artificial and that “broader connections to the
113 western hinterland areas are considered significant in the development of an inclusive Aerotropolis Master Plan” (EDTEA, 2016).
Many of the stakeholders shared the view that the Durban Aerotropolis will surpass its physical boundaries as per its location through functional flows that will cross the administrative borders of Durban, eThekwini and possibly KZN province. The inclusion and exclusion of these flows has significant bearing on the institutional forms of governance of the Durban Aerotropolis. If included and considered they introduce a dynamic of challenges in the coordination of the project. If however they are excluded, possibilities of a complex regional governance structure are simplified. One stakeholder who captured the essence of this was the Programme Manager for Human Settlements (24/05/2016) who said;
It is my view, I want it to be a project for space that is defined, yes, beyond that can only be the impact of it and also some interdependent. I am saying we will have an aerotropolis so that you are able to move goods in and out of KwaZulu-Natal, but I am saying that does not make everything that is touched by that to be part of an aerotropolis. I would want it to be defined and also doing it that way it makes our focus to be easier, you know exactly what you are dealing with. Yes, as I am saying I am not excluding that there will be impact worldwide but it does not mean the whole world then becomes aerotropolis, you still confine it to a defined area. I will want it to be a physically defined area, yes with influences and impact beyond its boundaries but it must be a physically defined area.
The Deputy Director of Policy and Planning at EDTEA (20/05/2016) acknowledged that the Durban Aerotropolis projects sits within a physical space but he felt that it had a reach that went beyond that. Here is what he had to say:
It has to be obviously first by physical attributes it has to sit at a space. I think by virtue of the aerotropolis, it is a project that actually becomes global in its reach.
The footprint might just be KZN it might just be iLembe, eThekwini and the others to a certain extent, but as we are starting to see some of the projects coming up with the global reach that the institute is exactly the example of that because that becomes an opportunity for the whole of Africa. While you might have a headquarter or a building in here but it has its reach to others it is influenced throughout Africa and I think that’s the whole idea and that’s why even the branding we are starting to look beyond just if you don’t call it Durban there will be problems because we have to link it to the destination or known destination. You call that institute Africa because you want to associate it with that market, but the influences are coming from elsewhere, it is a global project it just happened to be at a local space.
114 The Director of Policy and Planning at EDTEA (20/05/2016) and the Programme Manager for Human Settlements (24/05/2016) also spoke of the Durban Aerotropolis having influence in most parts of Southern Africa and across the globe. This is what they said respectively;
Well it will go beyond that, I mean it is just like Durban influenced it is the spoon that feeds Gauteng, so you know eThekwini’s boundary is more than just influencing KZN it is sort of influences Gauteng and Gauteng influences most of Southern Africa. Yes, look the one hour drive you know is you know, the nice thing about it is it is not a fence. It is not like okay these people are in and those people are out, there is no like physical boundary keeping people out and certain people in. The one-hour drive allows it to have a bigger influence but it can also be a lot bigger influence because you’re looking at airport that has connectivity and cargo you know flying to international destinations it’s influence is beyond that you know if we’re looking at it in an international context, yes, so yes.
Then you are saying the aerotropolis is not going to be unique it is still going to maintain that influence, I am talking about the link between it and KwaZulu-Natal specifically. Globally it is just going to be the global influences depending on what you sell and what you buy, yes basically those two go together very well.
The Programme Manager of the AMU (18/05/2016) alluded to spillovers that will come from the Durban Aerotropolis project being present in more than one municipal jurisdiction.
Well you will find that there are spillovers, for instance there could be spillovers to places like Richards Bay because of the economic integration, there are similarities between for instance the two ports so you will find that there are businesses that will locate within the airport city because they want to be just in between these two ports so yes, there are synergies.
Look within the aerotropolis study area you’ve got 80 percent of the province’s economy. KZN is a city region as opposed to being a province, it is a city region because if you take Durban and Richards Bay you’ve got 95 percent of the economy of this province, so you’re looking at we’re sitting at an area where the bulk of the economy and it is growing is located so that’s why we are calling it Durban.
Besides aerotropolis’ globally they spill over, there is no one aerotropolis that sits within a municipal boundary. Memphis Aerotropolis is sitting in three countries, Kuala Lumpur Aerotropolis even the airport is not even in Kuala Lumpur.
In relation to bounded or unbounded scale, there are specific places that are encompassed by the Durban Aerotropolis. The stakeholders speak of these places in different ways. The section below groups some of these places in categories to make better sense of them. While some speak of compass points, others speak of their physical nature, as they are known, and they are also spoken of in terms of their political jurisdictions.
115 Places encompassed by the Durban AerotropolisThis section looks at the places that are encompassed by the Durban Aerotropolis. These differ along the continuum of ‘fixed-defined’
and ‘loose-flexible’. These are places that are believed by the stakeholders to be within the confines of what they call the Durban Aerotropolis. According to Castells (2000:453), a place is “a locale whose form, function, and meaning are self-contained within the boundaries of physical contiguity”.
In compass points
Some of the stakeholders refer to places within the Durban Aerotropolis as stretching to cover the “north, south and west of the airport” (Deputy Director of Research & Development). This is a vague indication of the places within the area spoken of as the aerotropolis. The north of the airport stretches from La Mercy up to Ballito, Mandeni and Richards Bay. The south of the airport stretches to the South Coast down as far as Port Shepstone. The west of the airport stretches from Durban past Pietermaritzburg. Scale in these terms can be defined as loose and flexible.
In their physical nature
All of the stakeholders said that the following areas were within the Durban Aerotropolis boundary: Durban, Ballito, Ndwedwe, Tinley Manor, Stanger, Mandeni, Pietermaritzburg, Port Shepstone and Richards Bay. The Programme Manager of the AMU however, also said that it might just incorporate other areas such as Eshowe, also in the north of KZN.
A number of respondents spoke of the impact of the Durban Aerotropolis going beyond the La Mercy area and Durban itself. They believed that the project will have an impact that reaches as far as Richards Bay, Pietermaritzburg and Port Shepstone on the South Coast. Others saw the impact stretching beyond of the borders of the country into Zimbabwe or Nigeria through trade:
As a Gateway function for trade for example it actually impacts on the whole of selling. Companies as far afield Richards Bay, Pietermaritzburg, right down the South Coast, everybody in KZN should be able to benefit from the aerotropolis.
(CEO of the Dube TradePort, 30/06/2016)
Obviously if we speak of the reach of impact of the project then obviously it can stretch to as far as yes Richard’s Bay or to Zimbabwe or Nigeria or what not, so I
116 think maybe the variation is project reach yes can go way beyond. (CEO of the Dube TradePort, 30/06/2016)
In this perspective, although a physical place reflects a more fixed scale, there are aspects of it that are loose and flexible, more especially where stakeholders refer to impact stretching to outside the borders of South Africa to countries such as Zimbabwe and Nigeria.
In their political jurisdictions
In terms of political jurisdiction, the following municipalities were cited: eThekwini Municipality, iLembe District Municipality, Kwadukuza Municipality, Umsunduzi Municipality. Although many respondents referred to the south in compass point terms and to Port Shepstone in relation to physical places; no mention was made of Ugu District at any point in time. Scale, in political jurisdiction terms, is fixed and bounded.
The findings presented above reveal that the scale of the Durban Aerotropolis is conceptualised as both fixed and bounded and as loose and flexible. It thus can be understood across a continuum from totally fixed to totally flexible. The fixed and bounded is reflective of absolute spaces.
6.3 Purpose of function-form-scale in construction of the ‘region’ in