Hopes high for March port concessioning move

ALAN PEAT MARCH COULD see the next government announcement on port privatisation, according to authoritative port industry executives. This after a year where concessioning of the container terminals at the main SA ports has been on-again, off-again, on-again, like a stuck needle on a record. In January last year, the department of public enterprises assured FTW that concessioning in Durban was “imminent” – and August was the month whispered for statements of interest to be submitted. But nothing happened until statements started to be made by government and port authority officials that it had been decided to shift the concessioning goal posts from the private sector having outright leasing of the terminal, to a public/private partnership, with SA Port Operations (Sapo) retaining a “significant” interest. This was seen at the time as a surrender to the demands of the port workers unions, which had outright refused to accept anything but Sapo control and had used the national framework agreement to justify special talks at government level – and which slapped a natural delay on privatisation until these negotiations had been concluded. But this, it was added, might change soon. According to a source involved in the private-public negotiations, minister of public enterprises Alec Erwin has stated that at the end of February he will highlight all the assets he intends to get rid of – and the alternative ways these will be disposed of. Our contact has also been reading between the lines, and he suggests that a maritime conference planned for Cape Town later this year is likely to be the authorities’ announcement platform for any part of this referring to port privatisation. But, given the stop-start nature of the affair, there is no assurance that concessioning as originally planned will get the nod.