South Africa's Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for ahalt to the Western Cape's film studio development, according to local mediareports.

The DA has alleged that 'undue interference had been appliedin the process of awarding the tender for Cape Town's $58m (R400m) filmstudio'.

The winning bidder for the project, announced in February,is Anant Singh's Dreamworld consortium, which is set to begin construction onthe Cape Flats site in early 2005. However, the DA claims it has a documentrevealing that, based on six key criteria, another bidder - the Cape TownMotion Picture Studios (CTMPS) - was 'clearly' a better option.

Ebrahim Rasool, the Western Cape premier, has responded thatdue process was observed in the award of the tender and that "If the losingbidder is unhappy with the outcome, he can test the decision in court".