Fakir moves into Ports Regulator hot seat

Following the fond but sad farewell from the freight industry to Riad Khan, the highly capable former CEO of the Ports Regulator, a new set of hands took over the helm for a five-year stint starting on May 1. His name is Mahesh Fakir, and his CV certainly backs his claim to have the skills for this vital post in the SA shipping industry. Fakir is a professional civil engineer by trade, but also has extensive experience in the design and delivery of infrastructure projects in public sector institutions. He has served in government at senior management level for the past 12 years. In the past four years Fakir has served as a deputy director general (DDG) in the Presidency’s department of performance monitoring and evaluation, acting as outcome facilitator for economic infrastructure. Key amongst his duties was the monitoring of the performance of key economic infrastructure departments and state-owned enterprises. All of which sounds like a pretty good basis for his task in monitoring and setting the rates to be implemented by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), and acting as an unofficial judge in matters of dispute raised by port users.