AN EASTERN CAPE economic development conference, scheduled for the last week of the month, will have a positive bearing on the future growth of East London harbour, says port operations manager Nosipho Damasane.
It can also be the start of the return home of many former residents of this part of the world who have left to work in other regions during the past decade, she says.
What we have to do right now is to redevelop the province, and that can only be done with proper foresight and planning. That is the goal of this conference in which all the stakeholders will be working closely with the government departments of economics and finance.
The harbour, she says, will develop rapidly if the Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) gets the input and investment it needs to develop the cargo required.
We need this because of the new outlook of the harbour workers. We have been experiencing exciting changes since the restructuring of Portnet as a whole. We no longer look up to Johannesburg as the 'Big Daddy' to give us all of our orders and finance. Now we have to do it ourselves.
We no longer belong to a monopoly. We are now commercialised as individual harbours, and each manager has to balance the books in his own office. We have to interact more closely with clients for the simple reason we have to take care of our own rands and cents.
It has all become a new way of doing business and it is showing right down through the ranks of the harbour staff. Every person knows he has to work as a smarter and better team man. When employees see they are part of a project which centres around their own environment, and not just as a part of a huge conglomerate, they get excited.
Just realising they are now longer just a small part of a giant parastatal has encouraged them to get out of the old mode of 'I'll do it in my own good time.'
We welcome the problem of too many ships wanting to berth here. We have our staff ready to cope with it. Now we must get our province in order.
By Leonard Neill
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