Equipment isn’t necessarily to blame for the Port of Cape Town’s poor performance and the drop in wine exports it precipitated – respectively down 3% (UK), 16% (Germany) and 50% for the US since 2022; South Africa’s three biggest export markets.
According to Clifford Evans, customs liaison manager at clearing and forwarded Berry & Donaldson, labour issues have become the proverbial elephant in the room that Transnet would rather pretend doesn’t exist.
“Some of the equipment we have been expecting has arrived, such as the seven rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGs).”
He said that at least three of them are already up and running.
“The other four RTGS are busy with driver training and should be operational within the next week or two.
“The real issue, though, and it’s not an easy topic, is that we are of the opinion that Cape Town has a labour issue.”
He said part of the problem is talking about it.
“Nobody in Transnet will own up to it. They will tell us that they have equipment and weather issues but never acknowledge that labour is a problem.”
He said it’s become clear that even when the often wind-bound port has good weather and equipment working as it should, “productivity is down – why?”
Evans added that it’s well understood why labour is a hornet’s nest the state-owned logistics utility doesn’t want to discuss.
“We could see with the Port of Durban that the moment there were discussions about privatisation, staff went on a go-slow. The next day productivity dropped by about 50%.”
He said this was directly after it was announced that International Container Terminal Services from the Philippines would take over the running of the port.
“Labour says if someone comes in and privatises, we could lose 400 jobs, but if the port collapses, we could lose 40 000 jobs.”
Referring to the port’s impact on wine exports, Mike Walwyn, a director at the South African Association of Freight Forwarders, said Cape Town’s reputation as reliable supplier is at stake.
“In the sophisticated markets in which our wine is sold, this is a deal-breaking factor, and it's very easy to lose business to hungry competitors from other countries. Not nearly so easy to get it back again.”
Terry Gale, who chairs who Exporters Western Cape, said it’s concerning as the wine industry is a major player in the Western Cape economy.
He said it will be discussed at Wednesday's port stakeholders meeting.
In response to inferences about labour issues at the state-owned company, Transnet said it's "not aware of any action by labour as described in the article.
"We continue to engage employees on a daily basis to ensure that all of them remain motivated and committed to operate at the levels required by our customers."
