‘The future of maritime is in the Eastern Cape’

The maritime industry offers huge economic potential for the Eastern Cape through the ports of Ngqura and Port Elizabeth. Speakers at the ‘Mandela Bay’s Opportunities and Developments in the Maritime Industry’ workshop on October 20 highlighted the fact that Ngqura was perfectly positioned to take advantage of world trade, but South Africa and particularly the Eastern Cape lacked the necessary skills. The current economic downturn had created an opportunity for the Eastern Cape ports to take advantage of their strategic locations. Tantaswa Cici, manager: maritime safety management at Eastern Cape Department of Roads and Transport (DoRT ) proposed that the current economic situation and the threat of Somali pirates could divert freight travelling from the EU through the Suez canal to India. “The Port of Ngqura is perfectly situated to be a strategic hub between these two centres,” said Cici. “Also, the Suez canal cannot accommodate the very large ships. “We hope to put together an integrated provincial maritime plan by July 2010,” said Cici. Another goal of the government is to establish a provincial maritime centre by November 2012. However, in order to take full advantage of the industry, several issues need to be addressed. “The Eastern Cape maritime industry is loaded with infrastructure under-performance,” said Cici. “There is also a lack of skills and operational inefficiencies at system level. Regulatory and legislative framework needs to be looked at again as some policies don’t accommodate the Eastern Cape province.”