Cape Town Container Terminal (CTCT) has pushed its operational staff complement of “gangs” working vessels at the port to five, a statement by Transnet has confirmed.
This comes after Covid-19 infection fears significantly eroded the number of personnel required to sustain port efficiency.
With an increasing number of staff returning from self-isolation to attend to their various berth responsibilities, port officials last week tried to restore operational efficiencies to at least four gangs every day – a basic requirement for optimum port function.
Yet earlier this week Transnet said it was now managing five gangs at the CTCT.
The statement says: “Within the human capital constraints presented under the pandemic, the CTCT is operating at just below 60% and the Multi-Purpose Terminal (MPT) at 75%. The strategy is to increase and activate additional resources in the short term. This is being achieved through the reintegration of employees returning from quarantine, as well as those who have recovered from the disease.”
With regard to staff over 60 and those with chronic conditions, Transnet added it was relying on “medical reviews” to have both the benefit of these personnel reporting to work yet erring on the side of caution insofar as health, hygiene and curbing contagion were concerned.
Applicable parts from the rest of the statement read as follows: “The CTCT has already commenced implementing a fifth gang on the waterside, which will greatly assist in reducing vessel berth time. However, it needs to be borne in mind at this time that the pandemic is reported to still reach a peak and that this may manifest with new challenges.
“The Cape Town terminals have further undertaken to continually assess their facilities in order to ensure full compliance to Covid-19 regulations i.e. strict social distancing and PPE requirements. Additional measures to spatially separate the operations teams for more effective social distancing have successfully been implemented through additional mess and ablution stations to separate the various shifts.
“CTCT took delivery of its four new straddle carriers earlier this year, and due to the restriction on international travel the original equipment manufacturer could not offer the support to assemble these machines. Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) received approval for South African-based technicians to do the assembly to ensure that commissioning is not delayed. The four new rubber tyred gantries are still scheduled to arrive in November with the post script that they will now be fully assembled to circumnavigate the restrictions on technicians not being able to travel to SA.
“On the MPT front, two generator packs have been leased in to further assist the fruit industry with additional operational capacity. Capacity is planned to increase from the 220 installed reefer points to 280 this week. Furthermore, additional berth capacity will be available as and when it is feasible and safe to use vessels’ gear, which is aimed to reduce queuing.”
