Tau Morwe has conceded that South African ports have not dealt with the issue of growing their business and now face capacity constraints negatively affecting their efficiency and service delivery. The Transnet National Ports Authority CEO told delegates at a B2B breakfast in Johannesburg last week that South Africa’s ports were renowned for not planning ahead of demand. “If you visit any port in the world – from Antwerp to Rotterdam to Singapore to New York – you will find that there is an integration between the port and the city as well as an integration between the port and the local economy. They all have systems in place where they create capacity ahead of the demand as they are growth-focused in terms of capacity creation,” said Morwe. “In South Africa the situation is very different. On average in Durban we have anything from 12-19 vessels, even 23 sometimes, out at anchorage waiting for a berth. We are not creating any capacity as we are too worried about where the volumes will come from.” Citing the Port of Ngqura in the Eastern Cape, Morwe said only two container berths had been built, as there was a very real fear of not being able to handle even that amount of traffic. Now we are rushing to build two more container terminals to be able to address the need – having seen more than 300 vessels dock there in the past year, and a half million containers being handled.” He said it was time to be bold in the planning stages of ports and to worry about where the volumes will come from at a later stage. “The maritime industry has the capacity and the opportunity to grow tremendously in the next few years, but we must see the bigger picture. It also offers the opportunity to create the much-needed jobs that government is seeking.”
