Fruit industry to demand compensation from Transnet

South Africa’s R12 billiona- year fruit export sector has moved swiftly and decisively to normalise the impact of Transnet’s 17-day worker strike and is focused on ways of preventing an economic disaster of such magnitude occurring again. Only days before the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) announced (May 27) that it had called off the strike, agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister, Tina Joemat-Petterson, had underscored government’s concerns at the intransigence in resolving the issue. It’s anybody’s guess what this mess has cost the economy, with estimates of R7 billion bandied about. More than R1 billion can be attributed to agriculture, with fruit the major contributor. In addition, growers’ associations also face, and are contesting, emergency surcharges from container shipping lines for services disrupted due to the worker walk-out. Maersk Line has indicated it is levying a port congestion surcharge of US$150feu from May 19. So who is going to pay? “It will ultimately be the grower, which we regard as totally unacceptable and we will go to a lot of trouble to recoup some, if not all of the costs from the party that caused all this pain and havoc,” says Anton Rabe, chairman of Fruit South Africa. Just how Transnet will respond to inevitable demands for legal compensation has yet to be determined. Transnet’s ‘public face’ during the strike – human resources executive Pradeep Maharaj – says he is unsure whether contracts in place allow for reimbursement in this instance. Rabe, who also heads up Hortgro, representing the apple and pear industries, has met with some of the lines over the proposed surcharge. They indicate it is necessary to get operations back on an even keel as soon as possible – his own calculation is that it will cost them a combined R500-R600 million. In a letter to public enterprises minister, Barbara Hogan, Rabe commented: “Our international customers are in no mood to tolerate non-delivery of product from a badly managed relationship between a monopolistic parastatal and its workforce. “As a fruit industry, we are seriously running a risk of lost international marketing programmes which will be taken up with glee by our customers.” Equally disenchanted at the liner surcharge is Justin Chadwick, CEO of the Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA), who fired off a letter of protest to each of the eight lines serving South Africa. He says exporters will not be paying any additional charges and in particular no envisaged congestion recovery surcharges. “We would recommend that you direct your costs and loss recovery attempt at Transnet and not at your valued customers,” those, he hastens to add, who had “nothing to do with the strike.