Ngqura has proved the sceptics wrong - Morwe

South Africa does not dream
big enough, says Tau Morwe,
CEO of Transnet National
Ports Authority.
“In Busan in South Korea
they recently finished the
building of a 40-berth
container terminal. They are
not asking where the volumes
are going to come from or
how will they sustain it. They
are a nation of dreamers who
think big – they know they
will make it happen,” he told
participants at the monthly
Transport Forum held at the
Port of Ngqura last week.
“In South Africa we are
arguing about the necessity
for two more berths at the
Port of Ngqura to bring the
total to four. We are hesitant
to take the steps that will
create capacity and allow us
to go out there and market
ourselves to the world.”
He said when Ngqura was
started there was no belief
in the project from within
Transnet and the community
at large. “We were in the
middle of a downturn and at
board level the argument was
that there was no feasibility
in taking the project further.
In fact everyone was sure it
was going to fail. As South
Africans we are afraid to take
advantage of opportunities
presented to us.”
Morwe said Ngqura was
a prime example of what
could happen if South Africa
allowed itself to dream big.
“Within the first quarter of
operations we were already
handling more than 100 000
TEUs and now we are in the
region of some 600 000.”
This was quite significant
taking into consideration the
first vessel called at the port
less than two years ago.
“Our anchor tenant at
Ngqura was an aluminium
smelter but as our plans
progressed the smelter
fizzled away. It took some
convincing of the Transnet
board that Ngqura did
not need the smelter to be
successful and could become
a major hub for transhipment
containers – a feat we are
slowly but surely achieving.”
Morwe said when plans
were first announced that
four berths were to be built
at Ngqura it was met with
scepticism and disbelief. “We
undertook trips to Chile,
Brazil and the US in an effort
to attract more shipping lines
to this part of the world.
We were in the process of
creating something the world
did not have – short sea
shipping between this part of
the world and the rest. I think
it is a concept the people still
don’t understand.”
He said Ngqura would,
by the end of 2011, have
a capacity of two million
TEUs. “It is not about the
volumes we are currently
handling, but the fact that we
have a state-of-the-art facility
that has the capacity to meet
the demand. It is now time to
go and create that demand.”