New Ports Act provides privatisation time frame

ALAN PEAT
THE FUTURE of privatisation in the ports currently seems to hang on the appointment of the port regulator under the new National Ports Act. Not that he’s a single beast, according to Andrew Robinson, director and head of the maritime division at Durban lawyers, Deneys Reitz. While there will only be one regulator for all ports, he told FTW, this will not be a person, but a committee consisting of a chairman and between six and 12 members appointed by the minister of transport, Jeff Radebe, for five years. Although the act has been in place since last November, the regulations which will drive a lot of it – including the regulator – are currently still out for comment. “But in addition to what is contained in the National Ports Act, the regulator, in terms of the proposed regulations, must, within six-months of its appointment, conduct a comprehensive economic review of the present economic participation in ports operations and services by public and private entities and public-private partnerships. He must also review the optimal economic structure for future participation in ports operations by those bodies. “Pending the outcome of the review, the regulator will be entitled to regulate through directives all those wishing to participate in port operations and services utilising the procedures already created in the National Ports Act.” This is the first time that any sort of privatisation time-frame has been noted since minister of public enterprises, Alec Erwin, last year suggested that public-private partnerships (PPPs) were the only way to go – and since then just silence. A first implication of the regulator’s economic review function is that, after losing steam for about a year, there could now be light again at the far end of the privatisation tunnel. But there’s a contrary argument, according to Robinson. He suggested that “express” was not the metaphor for the privatisation train travelling the tunnel. With the time that the regulator will take in settling in, the depth of the study he will have to undertake, and the inter-ministerial consideration that will have to be given to the findings, “it’s more likely to be a slow goods train,” he added. An executive of another company with in-port business interests agreed. The private sector was getting “quite irate” about the delay in port privatisation, he told FTW. “This study by the regulator is really more likely to be another two-to-three year delay period,” he said, “rather than a light at the end of the tunnel.” Given this serious brake on the privatisation proceedings, there are also suggestions in the freight industry sectors looking at becoming involved in future PPPs in the ports that “other action” – while not defined – might be considered.