Calls grow for privatisation of Cape Town port

Various stakeholders are calling for the privatisation of the Port of Cape Town to improve port operations.

Calla du Toit, a pome fruit producer from Ceres and procurement manager at Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, said he was positive about the future of the fruit industry, as there was a new generation of producers with energy, passion and the mindset to overcome challenges.

The major challenge for them, however, was that producers could not fix problems at the Port of Cape Town.

“Problems at the port need to be solved. The industry cannot afford to wait another three to five years to see results,” he said.

DISCUSSIONS

Stakeholders from Tru-Cape, Ceres Fruit Growers, Two-a-Day Group, Dutoit Agri and Link Supply Management met Alan Winde, the premier of the Western Cape, Mireille Wenger, Western Cape MEC of finance and economic opportunities, and other government officials at the offices of Dutoit Agri in Ceres, to discuss the matter.

The Cape Town port ranked 344th out of 348 ports in the Container Port Performance Index published earlier this year by the World Bank in collaboration with S&P Global.

Chris Knoetze, managing director of Link Supply Chain Management, said inefficiencies at the port were costing the economy billions of rand each year.

“There is no investment infrastructure. There are no rubber-tyred gantry cranes, straddle carriers, terminal trucks and chassis on the ground to move the containers and get flow of the containers into the vessels and get it loaded from vessels.”

Other problems include poor maintenance of equipment and the loss of specialised skills at Transnet.

According to a benchmarking study published by the Port Regulator of South Africa, average waiting time increased by 500% between 2016 and last year, while crane movements reduced by 50% and turnaround time of vessels increased by 150%.

Inefficiencies were also impacting ocean freight rates. “Global rates have reduced worldwide by 30% since 2021, but South Africa did not see the same sharp reduction, which is negatively affecting our competitiveness on the market,” Knoetze said.

EFFICIENCIES

Wenger said that she had reported the Port of Cape Town to the Port Regulator of South Africa with regards to the problems and challenges facing exporters.

Glen Steyn, an economist tasked with the ease of doing business at the Port of Cape Town, called for the acceleration of pressure on private sector participation. “We developed a framework that was given to the finance minister. Now we need to identify the right partner. We need to focus on the cold chain and refrigerated containers,” he said.