TNPA mulls ‘People’s Port’ concept

Transnet National Ports
Authority (TNPA) will
conduct a specialist study
to consider a people’s port
concept for the Port of
Cape Town.
According to Hlamalani
Phephenyane, port
planning development
manager, the study is set to
start in April and will take
approximately ten months
to complete.
TNPA’s vision of “Smart
People’s Ports” in South
Africa is a concept aligned
with the company’s Market
Demand Strategy which
increases capacity ahead of
demand by upgrading and
maintaining equipment
and facilities. “The
other leg of the concept
is increasing customer
satisfaction by offering
seamless operations
that are efficient and
meet demands,” said
Phephenyane. “The concept
goes further though as
there is real opportunity
to develop our ports to
ensure integration and
diversity of activities and
people, promoting ports as
vibrant hubs. The people’s
port concept aims to
create public access to the
port, giving insight into
operations and the various
activities.”
She said while many of
the decisions around how
this would be achieved
in Cape Town would be
guided by the planned
study, the idea was to
expose the Port of Cape
Town to the public in
general.
“This could include
pedestrian walkways,
green spaces and routes
linking the port and the
city through a fine-grained
mixed use precinct. We also
ideally want to improve
pedestrian and public
transport accessibility in
the port.”
Phephenyane said the
public would never have
access to the internal
workings of the port,
allowing for operations to
continue uninterrupted.
“We think there is a
real opportunity with this
concept of creating a port
that people can access,” she
said.