Zululand Chamber slams hub plans for Durban 'It's an about - turn that will impact negatively on RB'

THE ZULULAND Chamber of Business (ZCB) says it is dismayed by recent
government and Portnet announcements of plans for Durban harbour which, it says, could have a negative impact on future development at the Port of Richards Bay.
According to the ZCB it has always maintained that any government decision on port development must be in the national economic interest.
ZCB president Cornell Moll says the Chamber was disturbed by recent comments from Portnet managing director Rob Childs that Portnet might look later in the year at the provision of container facilities at Richards Bay.
He said the ZCB was similarly distressed by reports that Trade and Industry minister Alec Erwin had said that Durban was the planned hub port for containers.
He pointed out that the Richards Bay Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) had identified the lack of those facilities as a major obstacle to further economic growth in the Richards Bay area. Government indecision about development in this region could well be identified as yet another obstacle to future growth, he added.
The ZCB expressed surprise that there were plans to make Durban a hub port, bearing in mind that the developments outlined by the government involving the forced removal of thousands of people, the deepening of the harbour and the creation of new facilities at the present airport, would cost billions of rands and take many years to complete.
Moll said that the Department of Trade and Industry had identified a container terminal as a project eminently suitable for Richards Bay because it was the only port in South Africa with sufficient depth and there was more than enough land available.
According to Moll, Portnet's policy had changed considerably in the space of only six months. He referred to comments by Childs made at last October's SA Chamber of Business (SACOB) annual convention, that Durban simply could not economically be expanded to the 2020 vision of Moving South Africa, while Richards Bay could. Childs is reported to have said that only Richards Bay was deep enough for post-Panamax super vessels, which would call in South Africa if this country could handle them.
Moll said in view of those contradictory statements, it was only fair that a detailed public explanation of the port development decisions be made.
By Terry Hutson