Durban transporters last Thursday walked out of a meeting called to discuss port congestion in Durban after Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) chief executive Nozipho Sithole refused to talk about management’s “broken promises” to improve truck turnaround times at the port’s container terminals. Transporters have now called on Transnet’s senior board members to intervene in the impasse or face “action” from truckers who say they have lost faith in negotiations with TPT management. This comes after the Port of Durban and Ngqura faced an illegal go-slow by staff demanding incentive bonuses. Their action has led to berthing delays of between seven and 11 days in recent weeks. Transnet said on Friday that it was taking action against staff and earlier reported that it had suspended a number of staff engaged in the industrial action in Ngqura. Transporter Kevin Martin said Sithole had told around 80 port stakeholders, including business leaders from trucking firms and ship operators, that the meeting was over when a member of the Concerned Harbour Transport Association attempted to hold her accountable for the SOE’s promises to fix the congestion. He said transporters had gathered to discuss the congestion that allegedly had led to trucks waiting between 12 to 24 hours at Pier 1 and 2 in recent weeks. Martin said Transnet had promised transporters on April 25 that it would have 18 ship to shore cranes, and 84 to 88 of its 109 straddles working by June 3. “But for much of the last two weeks they have been giving us 50 to 64 straddles and they told us that today (last Thursday) they have got 76. So basically over a month after their promise they come and say they will look to compensate us. It’s very frustrating. We said we want to talk about the last promises you have made and not met, don’t come to us with pie in the sky and new promises,” Martin said. “She said well if that’s the case then the meeting is over and we said we accept and turned around and walked out – and I think her jaw hit the ground. They must not tell us what they want to talk about when they are spending our money. We will be calling for heads to roll,” Martin said. He said TPT had agreed that no truck would sit for longer than six hours with a goal of a three-hour turnaround from gate entry to exit after transporters called for a 90-minute turnaround time five years ago. Durban Harbour Carriers’ chairperson Sue Moodley said transporters had been negotiating with TPT in good faith as they had a right to know what was going on in the port and to hold management accountable. However, she said Sithole was now showing disrespect to transporters, while shipping lines and cargo owners had no idea how long trucks had to wait to collect containers. As a last resort her organisation had escalated the matter to the Port Consultative Committee (PCC) and would also write to the Minister of Transport to intervene, she added. Concerned Harbour Transport Association spokesman Ashley Govender complained in a widely circulated email to Transnet acting chief executive Mohammed Mohamedy and Transnet board chairperson Popo Molefe that Sithole had shown “arrogance/disregard and disrespect for the transport industry” and dealt with them in a “dictatorship manner”. He called for an urgent meeting with senior management. “We are now calling for an urgent intervention directly from the CEO of Transnet Group and the chairperson on Transnet board. The fact of the matter is that you have a very very disgruntled transport industry in Durban that has lost all faith in the leadership of Transnet Port Terminals.” SA Association of Ship Operators and Agents CEO Peter Besnard said it was time TPT took action. “Transnet needs to look at the big picture, set aside projects that are not critical, and plough resources in to sort out the equipment and get some structures in place so we can go forward. Everyone wants to see the port working,” Besnard said. Transnet spokesman Molatwane Likhethe said in response to questions regarding the impasse and congestion that DCT operations “continue without interruption and performance is monitored on an hourly basis”. “We have increased our maintenance regime. DCT is currently averaging 70 ship working hours on large vessels, an improvement from its previous average of 56. Likhethe said TPT had recommended to transporters that transactions be booked through a container booking system while it looked into options to compensate transporters who were waiting longer than six hours. He said approximately 14% of trucks were impacted by long waiting times. “It is important to note that there is a mix of elements that contribute to the truck waiting times. These include truck drivers sleeping in the trucks within the staging area, frequent breakdown of trucks while in the staging area impacting on other trucks, and imports and exports that are not pre-advised,” he said. “In the last two days, the Cape Town Container Terminal (CTCT) has also been showing reduced performance. Performance management is now under way where employees who are not performing at expected norms are being disciplined as per the Transnet policy. Management is also interrogating abuse of sick leave, heightening supervision and holding performance discussions with operators frequently,” he said. Responding to concerns regarding negotiations with Sithole TPT said in a statement on Monday that it was committed to engaging with transporters to improve turnaround times and it was “unfortunate" that the meeting had “abruptly ended”. As this issue went to press on Monday morning, Transnet had issued a statement saying that it “had obtained a court interdict to stop the illegal strike action by employees at the Ngqura Container Terminal”. The interdict instructed workers to increase performance levels at the port. • See story on page 15 for a shipping line perspective.
We will be calling for heads to roll. – Kevin Martin
