Will Transnet CEO turn his words into action?
THE comments by the CEO of Transnet, Richard Vallihu, in the Independent on Saturday last week (“Port mishap reassurance”) was a breath of fresh air, showing that there is concern about the poor and marginalised who had lived in communities surrounding the port since time immemorial.
We need the dreams of our youth and communities to be fulfilled and Transnet is in the right space and time to do just that, by ensuring everybody can be part of the port.
I must also stress previous Transnet CEOs and senior managers marginalised and isolated the subsistence fishermen and unemployed from the Durban harbour. This practice continues, even though your interview indicates change will happen.
Since the 9/11 attack in New York, subsistence fishermen have had to endure fines, harassment, confiscation of fishing equipment and their catches being taken away by the port security and South African harbour police. The poor man’s transport, the Metro Train from Chatsworth, to the deep-water South Pier, is not in operation because of the train lines, for over a year, and Transnet’s sister organisation, Prasa, is unable to fix a simple rail line? Subsistence fishermen and the working class are affected.
We are calling for your written and spoken words of deep-seated compassion to be turned into words of action, by opening up fishing areas to the subsistence fishermen and a dedicated centre to be opened for the unemployed in the harbour. A budget should be set aside for our own V&A Waterfront for entertainment and recreation to be developed in the Durban harbour.
We call for a stakeholder committee to be set up immediately with clear terms of reference.