How East London port boss weathered the strike storm
Experience gained in Durban during looting spree, floods proved invaluable for Siphiwe Mthembu
We were able to also service the ro-ro industries until towards the end, when the ro-ros started getting stuck in Durban
East London’s new port manager, Siphiwe Mthembu, says the looting and catastrophic flooding in KwaZulu-Natal helped prepare him to deal with the recent strike that disrupted operations.
The appointment of Mthembu, who was marine operations manager at the Durban port, was announced in August. He took over the running of the Port of East London from Lwandile Mabuza.
Mthembu was speaking to the Dispatch about how he coped with the Transnet strike, which crippled services at the port for more than a week as unionised workers downed tools, demanding an above-inflation wage increase.
He said the port’s management had drawn up contingency plans to respond to major problems, including strikes.
“We have learnt from this strike, as a threeyear contract has been signed.
“As the executive committee, we are going to sit down again and look at the lessons from the strike and update our plans, so should a similar event happen in the next three years we are prepared.
“But it’s not just strikes — there could be other big happenings.
“When I was in Durban, we had storms that closed the port, and we had the looting that also affected us, but because we were prepared we were able to respond accordingly.
“So I’ve learnt from those events in Durban. We managed to keep the port open through those events.”
Mthembu is not a stranger to East London, having worked at the port between 2013 and 2015, before leaving for Durban
“It’s challenging now, compared with before. I was an operations manager, but now as port manager the job requires me to work even 24/7 sometimes.
“You just get a quick sleep and you wake up and you continue working.”
He said business disruptions at the port during the Transnet strike were not extensive, though the container sector bore the brunt of the labor stoppage.
“As soon as the strike started, we engaged our business continuity plans.
“We were able to do more shipping during the strike. We had tankers coming in and out of the port and then at the beginning, we had some ro-ro [roll-on, roll-off] vessels that could be serviced.
“But I think the challenge was with the container sector because the strike was national, so some of the ships feeding to the Port of East London had to go to other ports like the Port of Ngqura [in Coega] for a container ship.
“So it was then stuck in the Port of Ngqura, so we couldn’t get that container ship, but we were able to service the old industries with the tankers.
“We were able to also service the ro-ro industries until towards the end, when the roros started getting stuck in Durban, but we continued with the oil tankers that were coming in and out.
“The impact was mainly on the container sector.”
Mthembu said because of the containers stuck in the Port of Ngqura, port officials received feedback from their customers who said they were having difficulties continuing with their operations.
“But I believe that some containers that were in Ngqura were road-hauled to East London..”
He said some containers were carrying essential goods such as medicine that could not simply be left on the dockside until the strike ended.
Mthembu said the port had kept communicating with its customers to avert panic, especially over fears of a shortage of fuel.
It was even able to assist a vessel transporting cattle to load the livestock and sail on time without incident.
“I think we received about 15 trucks in total aiming for that vessel, of which five were feed and then 10 were actual livestock.
“We executed quite well without any challenges, though probably the operation was a little bit slow,” he said.