Port deals with private sector must be clean

Two issues spring to mind on news that the Durban port is throwing open its tightly held container operations business to private operators to cut its exposure to a R100bn bill, as well as to raise efficiencies and skill levels.

The first is that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s strategic intervention in the economy is starting to show signs of traction, opening previously closed state-owned entities to private ones, and spurring infrastructure capacity and utilisation.

It is something business in SA has called for over many years unshackling the potential in some of the finest infrastructure in Africa; reducing the involvement of an arguably inefficient staterun rail and port company, Transnet; and bringing modern practices and astute investors into the space.

The investors or companies that get involved must realise they will be obliged to take on local partners and ensure the transfer of skills and capabilities. If the obvious and historic pitfalls around corruption and influence-peddling by bringing on board political elite are avoided, this has the potential to be a leap forward for job creation. That’s the positive.

The second issue is the devastation of SA’s railway network, particularly during 2020 and the lockdown when it appears that theft of cables and tracks, and vandalism of stations and other infrastructure, was severe.

Central to the plans at Durban, the busiest harbour in SA and the third largest in Africa, is the establishment of rail corridors to three transshipment hubs inland to the west along the key road and rail route to Johannesburg, and facilities to the north and south of the port. In Durban and along part of the railway line that heads north out of the city, the vandalism is starkly apparent. Cables left by thieves hang from catenaries and it is clear no trains are on that line.

Without rail to move a near fourfold increase in container volumes to 11.3-million, 20-foot equivalent units out of the harbour to avoid gridlocking an already congested road system around the port, the grand plans will surely falter. The pollution and congestion associated with thousands of trucks pouring in and out of the port if the rail infrastructure is bad will create more problems than it is worth.

The refurbishment and operation of these three lines, and the railway line between Johannesburg and Durban, lies with Transnet Freight Rail, which is struggling with theft and vandalism on its coal line between Mpumalanga and Richards Bay.

Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan wants private operators on Transnet Freight Rail lines in three years or less. This would be a great opportunity for smaller players to get into the freight business, hauling millions of containers to and from Durban to the three hubs. The routes are not long or complicated, but there is sufficient volume to make them worthwhile.

While there is an element of national pride in reclaiming the title of Africa’s biggest and busiest harbour from Tangiers and Port Said, there is a more fundamental question of ease of doing business in SA and into the southern reaches of the continent.

SA would be foolish to squander this opportunity by letting the quality of its rail infrastructure deteriorate any further.

Mombasa is closer to India and China and it has a new railway heading inland to Nairobi, which gives access to landlocked countries west of Kenya.

SA cannot afford to play around with political ideology when choosing private container operators. It needs to have the best, most efficient and most committed. The ANC must not expect its families and friends to be first in the queue for jobs and benefits in this exercise. The party has a track record of this behaviour which does not end well for anyone. This must be a clean, transparent, commercial transaction. Too much is riding on it.

THE ANC MUST NOT EXPECT ITS FAMILIES TO BE FIRST IN THE QUEUE FOR BENEFITS IN THIS EXERCISE