Alan Peat DESPITE WHAT were termed “crisis meetings” last month involving government, SA Port Operations (Sapo), National Port Authority (NPA), Container Liner Operators Forum (Clof), individual shipping line representatives and others in the shipping industry, little information has been made public. Designed to try to solve the current port congestion problem - particularly in SA’s main port of Durban - all the parties have agreed not to talk to the press, but rely on single, joint press releases. But these have revealed little of note, apart from suggesting that the lines had agreed to play the game, and be accurate in scheduled port calls and to deliver information on containers due to be landed at each port, and that the long-awaited service level agreements (SLAs) would be signed and sealed by September. When FTW approached Clof chairman, Dave Rennie, chief executive of Unifeeder/Unicorn, he was unusually reticent. All he could tell us, he said, was that “progress is being made, and everyone is co-operating”. To this, he added that the individual lines were currently negotiating with Sapo about the content of the service level agreements. The source of the press releases to date - the department of public enterprises - has been even quieter. Despite repeated phone calls and messages from FTW to a named party at the department, we have heard nothing prior to our print deadline. Press releases reveal little
