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Southerners divided over former PM’s legal action against DSH

By Kingsley Emmanuel
Image of the controversial DSH project in progress…

THE confirmation by parliamentary representative for Vieux Fort South, Dr. Kenny D. Anthony, that he has filed a claim in the high court against the government for entering into an agreement with Desert Star Holding Ltd. (DSH) has left workers on the project in a pensive mood, pondering their fate.

So agitated are some of the workers by his decision, that they are now pointing at Dr. Anthony, accusing him of opposing development in the south just because his party is not in office.

Image of the controversial DSH project in progress…
The controversial DSH project in progress…

In a recent press release, the former prime minister described the agreements between the government and DSH as “unconstitutional, null and void” and the proposed method of financing the proposed development as “outrageous and an abuse of the goodwill of the people of St. Lucia.”

Dr. Anthony, in the release, claims the agreement “will destroy and/or inflict considerable harm on the farmers of his constituency and nearby communities, deactivate a just completed meat processing facility which was a gift from a foreign government at a cost of E.C$ 24.0 million, and strips the people of Vieux-Fort of their patrimony, access to the beaches and surrounding lands.”

When this reporter visited the site following the former PM’s Press Release, the atmosphere was tense.

In an interview with some workers on the project, they lashed out at Dr. Anthony with some venom in their voices.

“Dr. Anthony is pretending that he cares about his constituency, but he does not. What he is doing is nonsense,” one worker fumed.

John Gustave, a mason on the site, who has been working on the project for just over three months said: “If the project stops, it will seriously affect me. I just took a loan…”

He added that residents of the south, in particular, will be seriously affected if the project stops because the vast majority of the workers on the project are from the southern part of the island.

John Alexander, a supervisor on the project described the move to stop the project by Dr. Anthony as political.

“Why would he (Dr. Anthony) want to stop a project that will benefit the entire country?” Alexander asked.

Another worker said he is a supporter of the St. Lucia Labour Party, but does not support the “nonsense” Dr. Anthony and the party are doing, adding that if the project succeeds, the SLP will stay out of office for a long time.

1 Comment

  1. Will V/Fort remain as a 2nd class town in a St.Lucia facing a cut in a multi-million dollar
    access to a $100 Billion international financing, plus multi-million Dollar private investment
    or choose to remain the same ol’ same ol’ town of V/Fort, looking either like a futuristic Las Vegas
    or the same blight ridden, sleepy fishing village with a busy international Air Port. Wait till that
    Air Port begin it’s proposed expansion with jobs never seen before.Well,choose your weapons to fight.

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