The DA-led council of Cape Town has said it has requested to meet with South Africa’s state-owned logistics utility to discuss long-standing port constraints, especially insofar as it relates to equipment, infrastructure and challenges impeding throughput.
According to James Vos from the city’s Mayoral Committee for Economic Growth, some progress have been made through interactions with the newly appointed port manager, Rajesh Dana.
However, if nagging issues at the port aren’t speedily addressed, the Western Cape’s economy and the potential for job creation could be adversely affected, said Vos.
“It is my firm belief that if national government does not prioritise the allocation of funding and resources to fix the situation, it undermines the critical role that the port plays in supporting exports and economic growth.”
He added: “Even though his appointment was quite recent, I was encouraged that Mr Dana and his officials came forward with positive and proactive proposal updates for dealing with the concerns raised.”
During earlier interactions with Transnet, the importance of port infrastructure and the role it played for industries linked to the ocean’s economy was highlighted, said Vos.
He also pointed out that, considering the energy and enthusiasm with which previous discussions had been conducted, especially since Dana’s appointment, the Mayoral Committee was seeing renewed hope that the country’s logistics utility would address the port’s problems with the speed and seriousness it deserved.
Time is of the essence, though, and it’s not certain when the meeting between Transnet and the Committee will take place.
Vos’s emphasis of the need to address challenges around logistics, equipment and infrastructure, echoes what Nexlog operations director Mike Walwyn has said for some time, that the port has lost its ability to bounce back from persistent weather-bound delays and incidental challenges, many of them related to Covid-19.
Walwyn, who also serves as director of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders, puts the port’s problems down to ‘PPE – people, productivity and equipment’.
An enquiry by Freight News to find out when these and other issues will be addressed, as per the request that the Mayoral Committee has sent through to Transnet, remains unanswered (*).
* James Vos has since this post was written, replied as follows: "We had this very productive and positive engagement last week. Going forward, we will conduct an oversight visit at the Port in the coming weeks and then meet every second month with the various workflows looking at the key aspects from transport, exports, logistics, etc."
