City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, James Vos, has thrown his hat in the ring for the battle to ensure the privatisation of the Port of Cape Town.
This follows a call to national government by Western Cape Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, David Maynier, to provide answers as to why there have been no announcements about private partners for the port.
“At the end of the day, when the port works, our economy works in the Western Cape. Key to unlocking the potential of the Port of Cape Town is making sure critical infrastructure is maintained and that there is investment in new infrastructure,” said Maynier.
“I fully support the renewed calls by my provincial counterpart (Maynier), for more movement towards privatising the Transnet-owned Cape Town Port,” said Vos.
“The need to privatise is clear, the inefficiencies restrain the metro and province’s economic and employment growth, and come at a time when we desperately need to be bolstering both.”
Vos noted that while the 2021 announcement of the corporatisation of the National Ports Authority and the President’s SONA update regarding private partnerships for the Durban and Ngqura Container Terminals were welcome, he emphasised the critical need to make concrete moves towards building efficiencies in the port terminals of the Mother City.
“Cape Town – along with South Africa’s other ports – has sunk to the bottom end of the World Bank global container port performance report,” Vos highlighted.
“The challenges of the port are complex. However, in partnership with the private sector, I hold the view that these can be overcome and help the Port of Cape Town become the go-to hub for international trade.”
