For the first time since Cyril Ramaphosa took the oath of office in February 2018, a South African President used his State of the Nation Address (Sona) to bring peace of mind to the logistics sector, especially in relation to concerns about congestion at the Port of Durban.Addressing parliament last night, well over an hour after he first took the stand but was prevented from delivering his Sona because of the EFF’s disruptive tactics, Ramaphosa early on touched on freight.“Our ports are congested and inefficient,” he said.
There was no lead-up to this acknowledgement, coming as it did somewhat out of the blue.Its significance, however, cannot be overstated, especially given the high-level meetings that government and private sector harbour interests held over congestion and corruption in Durban last year.It furthermore came at a time when a television documentary quoted Michelle Phillips, general manager for Customer Growth and Freight Solutions at Transnet, saying it will take about 18 months to turn the port around.
Last night, almost four months after that documentary, Ramaphosa said: “During the course of this year we will undertake a fundamental overhaul of the Durban port – the third-largest container terminal in the southern hemisphere – to reduce delays and costs”.Commenting on Ramaphosa’s sentiments, a harbour carrier who spoke to FTW on condition of anonymity, said: “We will first have to see it to believe it. Durban has deep-seated problems and it’s going to take an extensive overhaul of assets and the re-motivation of staff to swing things around.”
David McCallum, managing director for DAL Agency, recently said the same, arguing that the running of Durban harbour required the port to change its business culture.
At the time McCallum spoke of vessels delays, all of them port-related, and the effect they had on freight effectiveness.Peter Besnard, CEO of the South African Association of Ship Operators and Agents, agreed, saying it was simply unacceptable that lines had to wait for up to a week or more before getting a berthing slot.
Bruce Lovemore, managing director at Lovemore Brothers, said the slow pace of container freight passing through Durban was so severe he didn’t understand why the Port of Richards Bay wasn’t used as an alternative entry point for containerised cargo.At the time it was a view shared by Philip Warren, managing director of Africa Route Clearance Consultants, who told FTW that the way from Richards Bay, up the N2 north to Pongola and then onto the N17 to Gauteng, was f lat, fast and unrestricted.Only time will tell whether, 12 months hence, supply chain throughput and related efficiencies, particularly at the Port of Durban, will confirm that Ramaphosa is serious about addressing congestion and not just paying lip service.