Molefe reiterates anti-privatisation stand

The increased incidence of piracy along Africa’s east coast is creating new opportunities for Ngqura as a hub port. That was the message from Transnet CEO Brian Molefe when he addressed business and community leaders in Port Elizabeth last week. Outlining plans for the continued development of Ngqura as the main transit hub for South and southern Africa, Molefe said Transnet would be investing in the ship-toshore gantries and other equipment needed to take the port’s capacity from 800 000 TEUs a year to two million. Molefe said Ngqura was being marketed as a hub to the European services wanting to avoid the Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. “A number of lines want to use Ngqura as a hub. Our navy is taking steps to ensure the problem of Somali pirates does not come to South Africa,” he said. South African exporters and traders would be best served by a “government monopoly” that controlled the ports, he said. Arguing that ports are “natural monopolies,” he said government was the only entity with the “appetite for risk” that would see investment in the ports and rail infrastructure ahead of demand.