Transnet’s ‘indeterminate’ hold on ports disappoints shippers

Call for ‘latest date’ of split Alan Peat THE IDEA of the National Ports Authority (NPA) remaining part of Transnet for an indeterminate period - a part of the amended NPA Bill - has disappointed SA shippers. This was a primary point in the SA Shippers Council (SASC) submission to MP Jeremy Cronin, chairman of parliament’s portfolio committee on transport, which is supervising the bill through to enactment. “One of the reasons for SA’s current ports crisis is that Transnet have been allowed to siphon off revenue generated by the ports to cross-subsidise their inefficiencies and activities in other areas,” SASC executive director Nolene Lossau told FTW. This, she added, had seen Transnet under-investing in the ports for a number of decades. Also, after a decade of knowing it was government’s intention to move out the NPA from under Transnet stewardship, they should not now claim that the removal would jeopardise their existence. “Transnet was part of the entire formulation of the white paper on national transport as well at the drafting of this bill,” Lossau added. “This proves that they have either not been acting in good faith during all of the negotiations - or are unable to get their house in order in spite of having had in excess of a decade’s warning.” SASC has asked government to diarise a “latest date” for the removal of the NPA from Transnet - with a proviso that such removal could happen earlier. The shippers, however, welcomed the amendment to the bill which included a National Port Consultative Committee (Chapter 11 Clause 83) over the original regional committees only empowered in the white paper. But the SASC has also requested the inclusion of “a representative of the cargo owners” to be appointed to that committee. “The cargo owners are the people who pay for all the costs to move cargo through the ports, and our membership currently controls in excess of 105-million tons of it,” said Lossau. “We feel we need to be included in all major decision-making processes in this regard. “As the cargo owners, we would like to have direct representation on the national committee.”