The New Market Stables, the last equestrian club in Durban, has been given notice to vacate the premises it has occupied for more than a century to make way for the new soccer academy.

Once the home of equine stars such as Sea Cottage and Politician, the Stables will closed after the municipality issued a notice to rid the city of Durban's famous landmark. The home of the KZN Yearling Sale for numerous years,  is now home to a riding club and flea market.  

Eighteen grooms will lose their jobs and six ageing horses will be put down.

“We are absolutely devastated,” Nadine Parker, head coach at New Market Stables Equestrian Club, said on Tuesday.
Parker said they were handed a letter from city manager, S’bu Sithole, on Monday telling them to vacate.
“This is the first direct correspondence we have had from the city since we first got wind that it wanted to develop a sporting precinct here. Just like that, no further consultation, just the letter, we need to go. How do they expect us to find homes for all these horses in one month?”
The New Market Stables, in Jacko Jackson Drive, is home to more than 50 horses belonging to various people who ride on weekends or allow children to learn to ride them.

Nadine Parker, head coach at New Market Stables Equestrian Club, is devastated that the municipality has given them notice to vacate the citys last horse stable to make way for a soccer academy. Picture: Sandile Makgoba
Independent Media
The site is also the base of the Metro Police Equestrian Unit, the fate of which hangs in the balance.
Last year, the New Market Stables, with the flea market and Berea Rovers sports club, learnt through the media that they would have to vacate the premises that are part of the King’s Park Stadium node to make way for the new soccer academy. The city signed a 30-year lease agreement with Hoy Park Management to develop the area.
The letter handed to Parker was blunt:
“Kindly note the vacant possession of the property is required on 1 September 2015.”
Parker said: “This is the last stable in the city where the children of Durban can learn to ride a horse. Parents who live and work in Durban drop their kids off here in the afternoon and can watch as they learn to ride.”
She said the city would bulldoze a part of Durban’s rich history if they tore down the stables.
“The city is meant to uplift all sporting codes and I see no reason why they could not have incorporated us into the new plans. They might see us as a white elitist sport but there is nothing further from the truth.
“We have disabled kids who learn to ride here, families come and have picnics on the grass and watch the horses go by on weekends,” she said.
Vusi Mncwabe, 45, who has been a groom at New Market for 27 years, said
:
“This is all I know. I have never had any other job but to care for horses. When they close us down, where would we go? Many of us who work only know how to care for horses and nothing else. We are angry, we are sad.”
Rhonin Naidoo, who keeps three horses at the stables, said he and his family were heartbroken
.
“The reality is that the horses will have to be put down. Maybe we will be able to salvage one. To us a horse is like a pet. We can’t live in Durban and have a horse in Shongweni and then drive up there two three times a week to visit it. It is just not practical.
“The New Market stables were perfect for us and people like us who are not breeders but just horse lovers. There is no other place like it in Durban and the suspicion that we all have is that this decision is not about creating a sport precinct but about lining the pockets of a very few connected individuals,” he said.
DA councillor, Martin Meyer, said that not only would the city lose a landmark, but scores of small businesses which operated from the flea market would be shut down too.
“The DA is supportive of a soccer academy to be developed in the city, but this cannot be done at the expense of other sporting codes, nor at the cost of people’s livelihoods.
“The city has a responsibility to act fairly towards the current tenants on the land. I have written to the city manager and will engage with him in a meeting this coming week regarding this matter. The DA has also submitted questions to council to address this matter,” he said. 

Daily News with additional reporting from Sahorseracing.com

 Image: from kznpr