New PE manager focuses on enhanced operational efficiencies

A ‘sleepy’ image Port Elizabeth may well have, but that is where comparisons with Rip van Winkel end. The city is alive to the many opportunities that exist, suggests Rajesh Dana, the Friendly City’s newly appointed NPA port manager. For the 42-year-old, Transnet’s senior finance manager in Cape Town for the past six years, returning to Port Elizabeth represents a true homecoming in more ways than one. Not only did he grow up in the city (the suburb of Malabar), born into a prominent education and sporting family, but this is where he started his Transnet career and where he married local girl, Natasha. In his first interview with FTW last week, Dana was quick to dispel preconceptions, uppermost that the port of Port Elizabeth is little more than a ‘poor sister’ to the port of Ngqura. “Certainly not so,” he insists. “In terms of Transnet strategy, we operate a system of ports designed to complement one another, as is the case with Port Elizabeth and Ngqura, each with different markets.” He agrees the city has historically gained a ‘sleepy hollow’ reputation but believes this to be rapidly changing in the face of further development in the Eastern Cape. “You have some serious investment at Coega, the potential for a smelter and refinery there, and it is those kinds of mega-projects that are attracting investors to the Eastern Cape. “As a city, Port Elizabeth has most definitely changed for the better, showing signs of great potential in investment terms and a renewed recognition of what enhanced economic opportunity means for the province.” Only 18 days into his new portfolio at the time of our interview, Dana commented: “I intend to reinforce Transnet strategy and to further implement international best practice with regard to weathering the current economic downturn.” With handling capacity of around 420 000 TEUs, the port annually attracts some 70 vessels of all types. A keenly anticipated development for Port Elizabeth is to be the expiry four years hence of leases on the tank farm at Humewood, followed by decommissioning and rehabilitation of the land for port purposes. “We need to find something that is not only going to sustain the port but more importantly, the people within the municipality. “First and foremost, we need to employ projects that will create jobs and enhance activity in the region.” Transnet’s budget for the port is around R42 million this year, which includes R7.2 million (of an eventual R32 million) toward construction of a boundary wall around the manganese facility. “Then we are embarking on some quite elaborate projects, including the upgrade of our electrical reticulation network, at a cost of more than R29 million.” After matriculating, Dana obtained a BCom Finance degree at the then University of Port Elizabeth, followed by an MBA from Business School Netherlands (BSN) and a host of local and international port management and general management courses. He started in Transnet’s finance department in Port Elizabeth in 1994 and thanks to strong mentors, soon rose through the ranks to eventually head up the Corporate Services Department (Finances, ICT and Procurement), followed by promotion to his previous position in the Mother City port. Dana succeeds Durbanite, Captain Neil Chetty, the NPA’s newly appointed harbour master and acting port manager at the port of Ngqura.