17 Military bases for sale
Date: 19 October 2000
Seventeen SA National Defence Force bases will be put on the market from January, Public Works Minister Stella Sigcau has announced in Parliament.
The disused bases, worth a few million rand, should attract private buyers because many border urban areas and can be converted for business, industrial or residential use. Some run to hundreds of hectares.
Answering a question, Sigcau said comprehensive guidelines were being drawn up by private consultants – funded by the World Bank – with a view to civilian applications.
Guidelines have already been completed for 11 bases: Pomfret and Klippan in North West; Langefontein base, George Women’s Army College and Saldanha’s Tooth Rock shooting range in the Western Cape; Hoedspruit and Bourke’s Luck in Mpumalanga; Zwartkop and Devon in Gauteng; Soekmekaar in Northern Province; and Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape.
Guidelines for the other six should be finalised next week, along with the overall programme for privatising the properties. These bases are Camden in Mpumalanga, Mmabatho in North West, Thaba Nchu in the Free State, Waterkloof in Gauteng and Ysterplaat and Wingfield in the Western Cape.
Sigcau said the bases would be put out to tender from January.
Naspers
