Backlog will be cleared by month end

Newly appointed regional executive for Transnet Port Terminals Cape Town and Saldanha, Vulile Dube, professes to be completely taken aback at his new posting. The 49-year-old, for the past six months head of TPT’s new Total Quality Control and Continuous Improvement department, told FTW at our first meeting in November: “We would like to see the organisation focus in the right areas and apply our minds once we understand which procedures and processes frustrate customers.” That, clearly, has not changed. “I have been in the ports system before, so pretty much understand what they should be doing in terms of service. “I still have a lot to learn but am open to that and the best people I will be learning from are my customers and employees. “I am sad about leaving my previous job because that was where I would be able to make a massive impact across the 14 ports. However management took a totally different view and I am not going to debate that but rather get stuck in.” During his brief tenure at quality control and continuous improvement, the early focus was on maximising rail integration capacity between Durban Container Terminal and Pier 1, said Dube. “I would like to start thinking differently about maximising to the full the benefits of Cape Town Container Terminal and MPT.” His inspiration for the quality control and continuous improvement mission stemmed from experience at Toyota SA, where he was vice-president for marketing, planning and communication, prior to being lured back to TPT. Very much a kindred spirit to predecessor Moshe Motlohi in terms of thinking, Dube says: “It’s all about people, in and out of house, and I do not believe our own have been given the hearing or opportunity to influence how we work.” Dube, to be assisted in his mammoth mission by Hector Danisa, former BUE at Cape Town MPT, Port Elizabeth and Ngqura Container Terminals, is confident the container terminal backlog should be cleared by the end of the month or mid-July at the latest, vessel delays currently at around 73 hours on average. For now, the role of Danisa, officially regional assistant terminals executive, is to focus on the technical/operational aspects of the business, specifically that of Cape Town Container Terminal. While Dube is still very much an unknown quantity to the Mother City shipping community, a senior operations executive says of his first meeting with him: “I was impressed by his assurance that the problems in Cape Town would be addressed, such as moving undesirable people from their positions. “Much of our problem relates to inexperience on the part of senior TPT managers.”