Sapo calls for help to keep equipment going

Tenders out for maintenance management Leonard Neill SA PORT Operations (Sapo) is calling for help. They have plans and programmes for the maintenance of equipment and facilities in South African harbours, but these are not being fully implemented. “The terminals haven’t bought into our systems, and we are left with the question of do we have enough skills available to use the equipment we have and to upgrade it?” says Hamilton Nkumalo, Sapo general manager of equipment engineering and asset management. Sapo has put out tenders inviting proposals for the maintenance management processes of the engineering assets at all its ports. “There is no denying we have a huge problem,” he says. “The equipment is there, although much of it is old. South Africa was never ready for the mammoth changes that took place a decade ago, and the ports have been a major victim. Now we have to find out if we have the staffing levels to deal with the problems. “We have to ask ourselves if we are on a par with modern technology, and we really need outside maintenance engineering expertise to give us the answer. We accept that we have capacity problems in all harbours, simply because no one planned for the changes which huge facilities like ports went through in the nineties. “So my call is for those with expertise to assist us and show us the best practices to be observed. We need programmes to work in five year, 10 year, even 20 year sectors.” Proposal documents, obtainable from Sapo’s offices in Durban, must be in the hands of Transnet tenders section, Johannesburg by Tuesday, February 11.