Transnet’s helping hand will push EL to new heights

Buffalo City has emerged from what was known as just East London. However, the Port of East London retains its name and is determined to shake off its Cinderella status and join the Big Five of South Africa’s ports. Kevin Mayhew visited the City that was once more famous for a wandering Hippo in its midst and a prehistoric fish than the buffalo that once abounded it. Strong case presented for deepening port draught Terry Taylor . . . ‘There has been a definite change of heart by central Government which now wants to see our area grow.’ KEVIN MAYHEW JUST WHY East London has been placed on the backburner for the attention it has craved for decades is not immediately clear. Perhaps it was because of its position initially on a coastline dominated by Port Elizabeth. Or was it the politics of the latter half of the 20th century that saw it sandwiched between the fractured homeland creations of Ciskei and the Transkei? But now its business community is abuzz with expectations of a new era – a window of opportunity as it positions itself to become a dominant force in certain industrial sectors despite the established facilities of Port Elizabeth and the emergence of Coega to its south along the Eastern seaboard. Is the home of the world famous 400 million year old fish find of 1938, the Coelacanth, biting off more than it can chew – a salmon swimming upstream against a current too strong to find economic spawning grounds? Do they have the iron will and thick skin to succeed as did one of the city’s celebrity faunal visitors, Huberta the Hippo? In 1928 Huberta wandered from St Lucia in Zululand to East London some 1600 kms away and captured the world’s attention, before being unceremoniously shot by three hunters who did not realise that she was a legally protected animal at that stage. It is attention that East London requires now – a kind of helping hand from mainly Transnet to enable it to realise the potential that its gritty business community believes possible. “There has been a definite change of heart by central Government which now wants to see our area grow. We have the will and the location to carve our own niche in the fabric of southern Africa’s transport and logistics future,” says National Ports Authority spokesman, Terry Taylor. It is appropriate for the ambitions of the port city to be based on an upgrade of its harbour facilities. Its greatest home grown innovation has been adopted by ports worldwide. The humble dolos (animal knuckle) invented by the harbour engineer between 1961 and 1976, Eric Merrifield, today creates breakwaters for ports worldwide. It is probably symbolic of the friendly and helpful nature of the people of the city that Merrifield decided not to patent his odd looking idea but preferred to offer it to the world as his contribution to it. The City also believes that it has untapped potential in the tourism sector with its accessible and still affordable coastline earmarked for major development. There are rumblings already that it wants an airport that can handle greater volumes of foreign travellers directly to exploit this potential. The fact remains however, that it is in a Catch-22 situation – it needs the port development to become a powerful automobile hub. It also needs it before it can effectively introduce and make attractive its Industrial Development Zone. And that takes cash – a lot of it – so the enthusiasm is tempered by the realisation that the port has to put a very good case for itself in the immediate scramble for development capital and political will to develop the country’s areas. They have done just that with a first prize outline of development plans that will include deeper draught capacity to take on new generation ships in a world shipping environment that is building larger vessels to meet future needs. It is appropriate that it should be focusing its attention on the automotive sector as its main economic catalyst has for decades been the DaimlerChrysler plant adjoining the harbour, with direct access to its existing motor vehicle terminal. Speaking of automobiles, if the City can imitate the performance of another of its favourite sons – Jody Scheckter the 1979 Formula One World Drivers’ Champion - it is geared for a champion future.