FTW continues its battle for an audience with MPT

After the happy statement (FTW October 7, 2011) that the power of the press seemed to have set a possible course towards solving a battle between port users and the multi-purpose terminal (MPT) at the Port of Durban, our efforts have unfortunately once again hit that inevitable, bureaucratic brick wall at Transnet Port Terminals (TPT). After a lengthy struggle by the port users to reach a conclusion over a number of contentious rules laid down by the MPT came to a grinding halt, Carl Webb, spokesman for the users in the conflict, came to FTW and set out his problems before us. After FTW had published a series of articles expressing these users’ problems, and condemning MPT management for not heeding any of them, Webb was confronted by Zeph Ndlovu, divisional executive manager of Maydon Wharf (where the MPT is located), at a following meeting and criticised for taking his moans to the press. But Webb suggested to Ndlovu that the power of the press could be used by TPT to achieve a positive result, and that FTW had told him we would be happy to print his action plan to overcome the problems. Webb insisted that Ndlovu would be happy for there to be a threeway meeting on the matter. But, after almost a whole week of attempting to set this up, and messages being left with Ndlovu’s office and on his cell phone voicemail – FTW was left with nothing but the fact that Ndlovu was always “unavailable”. But we haven’t given up – and will keep you posted on our progress.