Environmental victory would harm port and province

RAY SMUTS A VICTORY for environmental lobbyists seeking to prevent the proposed extension of the Cape Town container terminal would not only strike a blow for the Mother City port but for the entire province. That’s the unanimous consensus of all involved, from Sapo CEO Tau Morwe to a brace of cabinet ministers and various Transnet executives. And while the port of Saldanha has been mooted as an alternative, commerce and industry players have misgivings about the distance (about 150km) from Cape Town and transport modes. What is more, as Cape Town port manager Sanjay Govan pointed out at a media presentation last week, not only does Saldanha have no infrastructure whatsoever for handling containers, but no supply industry either. Port planning manager Billy Cilliers points out that the Saldanha option will also require Environmental Impact Assessments, further delaying the issue. “The fastest development would actually be in Cape Town because of how far we have proceeded on the process,” he said. When the department of environmental affairs and tourism received Transnet’s original study in November last year, a positive decision was forthcoming but the relevant minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, found it flawed from an environmental perspective, sending the parastatal back to do some more work. He also proposed as an alternative to the 300-meter port terminal extension a “feasible” inland terminal option, currently the subject of an intensive consultancy study. New environmental studies have also been initiated by Transnet. Cilliers says he hopes the inland terminal study will be completed by November and the environmental study by the end of January 2007, while DEAT’s Record of Decision is expected by March next year. The port's medium-term Gross Domestic Product Regional (GDPR) contribution to the Western Cape economy is 4.8% per annum and the predicted long-term growth rate 8%.