Upgrade will boost business

Tensions between local business and Transnet over the slow pace of East London’s harbour development could start to ease as the giant state entity swings into action.

Port manager Jacqueline Brown recently took the Saturday Dispatch through the details of the R2.8-billion  plan to revitalise the harbour.

Her overview reveals a comprehensive makeover of  existing infrastructure and even realisation of a 20-year-old demand from local business and Buffalo City Metro (BCM) to deepen and widen the port.

Rough estimates from local experts  that the harbour is operating at a conservative 65% of capacity are not far from the truth when it comes to vehicles (54% spare capacity) and containers (60%).

But even with this space to operate, the harbour is still moving freight valued at billions of rands every month.

The International Trade Tracker launched this year by the department of economic development, environmental affairs and tourism (Dedeat) says  R7-billion moved through the port in March.

The port handled R3.6-billion in imports and exported freight of R3.5-billion.

National Deputy Finance Minister  Mncebisi Jonas, the former provincial MEC of Dedeat and of finance, told the Dispatch that he recently had a productive high-level meeting with Transnet.

BCM finance portfolio standing committee chairman John Badenhorst said little had changed since 2008 and 2009 when the multi-stakeholder port steering committee (PSC) he was involved with told parliament twice that Transnet was neglecting the port, which had not been upgraded since 1977. Six years ago, the PSC warned that failure to upgrade would lead to 16000 job losses.

StatsSA reports that the province’s expanded unemployment rate is 42.5%, the highest in South Africa, 45.1% of Buffalo City’s youth are unemployed, and 35% of the workforce among the  metro’s 755200 residents are jobless.

Les Holbrook said the Border-Kei Chamber of Business worked off an estimate that 28% to 32% of urban BCM residents are unemployed and in the metro’s rural areas the numbers rise to 38% or 40%.

Badenhorst said Transnet had been told all along that the eastern half of the Eastern Cape would pay the cost of not developing the harbour,  which is key to unlocking industrial development and easing poverty.

He said East London remained a vital service centre for the hinterland, with the harbour at the centre.

But he  and others like  Holbrook feel  government’s attention and infrastructure spend is focused on Ngqura.

Dedeat spokesman Tobile Gowa said his department was “still lobbying for continued support for the EL port” through bi-annual meetings with Transnet’s strategic planning forum.

East London Industrial Development Zone spokeswoman Ayanda Ramncwana urged stakeholders to “strengthen” efforts to attract investors in order to increase  traffic through the port.

Despite a number of positives, she said: “There is still a need for further deepening of the East London port and widening of the entrance channel turning base to allow bigger vessels to dock.

“Transnet has already committed a substantial amount of money to dealing with this limitation and we continue to closely engage Transnet on the matter.”

Turning to the argument from some in Transnet that business must bring business before the state puts money into developing the harbour, Ramncwana said: “This continues to be a subject of debate amongst roleplayers.

“The reality is.  depending on where you are sitting, both arguments are valid.

“Industry needs an efficient, world-class port with no limitations, in order to attract investment.

“And Transnet needs a compelling business case to continue pumping money into the port.”