Southern African ports should co-operate not compete

Rather than competing
against each other, African
ports should be exploiting
the opportunities
that cooperation and
integration can provide,
says Tau Morwe, former
CEO of Transnet National
Ports Authority.
“If ports worked together
far more could be achieved,
but we are too focused on
competing,” he said at the
third annual Women
in Maritime
conference that
recently took
place in Cape
Town.
“If one
looks at the
European
system
then the
importance of
port cooperation and
partnerships is evident.
These ports seamlessly
move cargo between
them with the main
characteristic being the
coordination of supply
chain activities,” he said.
“There is more cooperation
and coordination which
results in an efficient
regional infrastructure
and a transport and
logistics system
where economic
benefits are
reaped by all.
But this is
not the case
in Africa.
We are
focused on
competing.”
He said
if African
ports worked together
they could create key
competencies within the
region for the benefit of all.
“The Durban port is
currently facing major
challenges
around
dredging
because of
maintenance
problems
and the
dredgers are
all out. So
we now have
to run helter
skelter to
the Chinese
or the
Americans
for help.
Within
the region, if we were
cooperating and
integrating, we could
easily have created
capacity to assist each
other with dredging,
which is really the
most obvious of
examples, but
there are many
others where
mutual benefits could be
achieved.”
He said technical and
maritime expertise was
another area where African
ports had for far too
long been
depending
on Europe
for help.
“That does
not mean
we must
not have
relationships
with these
countries,
but we can
also work
with each
other in the
region – be
it to improve
our technical skills or
reduce traffic congestion or
cargo storage fees.”
He said as much as
competition was key in
the modern port authority
environment, it was just as
important to understand
the role of cooperation
going forward.
“One of the biggest
challenges in the region is
that individual countries have
political changes all the time
and so nothing is implemented
over time. In my tenure at
Transnet I must have had five
different ministers of transport
come in and each had their
own rules and agendas and
changes were made.”
Morwe said this was the
case for most countries on the
continent – not only South
Africa. “So if you were to go
to the transport minister of
South Africa, Mozambique
and Kenya now and ask them
what the Port Management
Association of Eastern and
Southern Africa is they would
probably not know. We have
to change that,” he said. “As
industry we have to work
together to make sure the
political will is there, remind
ourselves and governments of
the SADC protocols and start
implementing them.”
He said unless regional
approaches were taken to
problems around shipping no
change would be effected in
the long run.
INSERT & CAPTION
Unless regional
approaches are taken
to problems around
shipping no change
will be effected in
the long run.
– Tau Morwe