Silt blocks ships with full loads from EL port
Chamber calls for R2.4bn port upgrade now Court finds toxic feed killed farm animals
SILT of up to a metre high has built up on East London’s harbour floor, causing shipping delays. Bulk carriers, vital to the region’s economic wellbeing, are being forced to lighten their loads by hundreds of tons to enter the port, say shipping agents and harbour employees.
Les Holbrook, director of the Border-Kei Chamber of Business, called for a promised R2.4-billion investment from Transnet to deepen the harbour “to start now!”
Holbrook said the harbour was shallow and narrow.
“The container berth needs expanding. Until this is done, East London cannot attract more business to the port.”
But silting delays were strongly denied by Jacqueline Brown, East London port manger for Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA).
She denied that the draught limit (the depth of a ship from water level to the keel) had been reduced by an advertised 10.4m to less than 9.5m.
Correspondence from shipping agency John Fish Agencies to the port captain, Precious Dube, last month shows that the 179.9m-long oil Panamanian-registered oil tanker, Eagle Milan, was not allowed to dock on April 21.
The agency’s Kevin Fish told the Dispatch: “Those e-mails were not intended for the press. I have no comment.”
In his e-mail to Dube on April 22 Fish wrote: “The draught limitation in both the entrance channels as well as that at the tanker berth have decreased from the previous advertised 10.4m to 9.5m.
“Today, Eagle Milan arrived off port with a draft of 9.5m, but was unable to berth because she is restricted to tidal berthing. I was not aware that we have a tidal limitation as the previous correspondence indicated that this only applicable to vessels with a draught of 9.8m.
“The current draught limitation is severely limiting the way tankers are able to operate at our port as they are unable to carry their full load of cargo as they would exceed the draught limitations.
“The situation is now becoming dire and we urgently need to dredge the berth at the oil wharf.”
In her reply Dube apologised, said she was investigating and had spoken to the “chief harbour master”.
However, she wrote that until the dredger arrived and “for the safety of vessels visiting East London, I would keep the draught at 9.5m and increase to 9.8m on request, if conditions are favourable, until we are satisfied that it is safe again to bring it back to 10.4m.”
Transnet’s website states that East London port has a draught of 11m to 14m and that vessels with draught up to 10.4m can be accommodated subject to tides and prior arrangement with the harbour master.
Two more local shipping sources claimed heavy shipping was only being allowed in on high tide, with one saying this was causing R240 000-a-day delays.
One source at the docks said: “There is no fixed maximum draught. They are bringing in ships on every high tide.
“They (TNPA) say the wind is too strong. Rubbish. The ships are so loaded wind won’t affect them.”
However, Brown said: “A regular buildup of sand is a natural phenomenon and TNPA has a national dredger deployment plan in place to address this.
“East London is scheduled to undergo dredging within the next month using the grab dredger, Italeni.”
On April 21, Rufus Lekala, the national chief harbour master for Transnet National Ports Authority, responded to the CEO of the the SA Association of Ship Owners and Agents (Saasoa), Peter Besnard, saying “The dredger should be in East London approximately at the end of May.
“After careful consideration, in consultation with all stakeholders, it was decided that the dredger should stop in Port Elizabeth for a period of three weeks then proceed to the port of East London.
Besnard wrote that East London Saasoa members had “on numerous occasions pressed to have the tanker berth and entrance to the port dredged to the original draughts. When contacted for comment, Besnard said the correspondence was not intended for publication.
The official shipping list shows that 15 ships are expected this month, and nine next month.
Mercedes-Benz South Africa spokeswoman Jeanette Clark said they had not experienced any problems.
Brown said: “There have been no delays to any vessels at the Port of East London, nor are vessels only being allowed in and out of the port at high tide.
“Within the last week there have been 17 shipping movements at the port across the full range of vessels available, including car carriers, tankers, cruise liners and a bulk carrier with a consignment of cement. Only the bulk carrier was hindered on 30 April due to wind.” — FOOD manufacturing giant Pioneer Foods has been found liable for the death of dozens of Aliwal North farmer Johan Bekker’s cattle, goat and sheep which ate contaminated food from one of its outlets.
Grahamstown High Court Judge Murray Lowe yesterday found Bekker’s 46 cattle, 71 goats, and 80 sheep worth an estimated R825 000 died as a result of phosphine poisoning contained in stock food bought from Pioneer Foods.
Bekker estimated the consequential loss in terms of dairy calves amounted to a further R1.2-million.
Phosphine is a highly toxic product commonly used for the fumigation of dried grain to rid it of insects.
The 37-year-old farmer, who owns two farms in the Aliwal North area, had told the court that in August 2011, he had, as usual, bought screenings from a Pioneer Foods outlet. Screenings consist of mielie cobs and leaves.
Bekker said he usually milled these down and mixed them with two other products, beesvet and hominychop, for his cattle, goats and sheep.
He farms cattle on his one farm and goats and sheep on the other.
When he bought the food he had noticed a sharp smell that made his eyes and nose burn. He had taken the food home and mixed it in his barn on a clean cement floor as usual.
He had then put it out in feeding tyres on his farm Amazango for the cattle and in closed self-recharging feeding bins on Floukraal for his sheep and goats.
He said the tyres had been empty at the time while the self-recharging feeders, which still had some feed in them, had been topped up.
A day later his cattle had begun dying. He called vet Dr Casper Troskie who took samples from some of the carcasses.
After a week, 90% of the animals on Amazango that had eaten the food were dead.
A few days later, the sheep and goats on Floukraal also began to die after the new feed had begun to permeate through the self-feeders into their troughs.
All the animals, such as his dairy herd, which were not fed the mix, were unaffected.
He had sent the food off to the laboratory at Ondersterpoort where tests concluded phosphine was highly suspected to be present in the food.
Pioneer admitted it fumigated its grain products with phosphine, but said it did so in a scientific, carefully regulated manner.
Retired chemistry professor Perry Kaye testified it was difficult to offer any other reasonable explanation for the animals’ deaths other than phosphine. Judge Lowe agreed. He ruled Pioneer Foods was liable for damages. The issue of the amount payable in damages will be determined at a later stage.