Buffalo City Metro has lost billions in potential investment because of East London’s undeveloped harbour.
And with one voice, organised business, municipal bosses and the East London Industrial Development Zone on Friday called on Transnet to prioritise the development of the harbour, saying that would benefit the economy of the province.
The call was made at the Transnet National Ports Authority customer forum at the East London ICC on Friday.
Border Kei Chamber of Business executive director Les Holbrook said the revitalisation of the only river port in the country was long overdue.
“All the other ports in the country have had significant investments. East London is not even on the Transnet newsletter because they have nothing to say. Every commodity that used to be exported from East London has been moved to another port. All we have left is manufacturing,” Holbrook said.
EL IDZ spokesperson Ayanda Ramcwana said because the harbour was underdeveloped, the city was losing billions of investment opportunities.
“Investors walk away and some of them are now setting up in PE because it is close to the Port of Ngqura,” she said.
This was echoed by BCM city manager Andile Sihlahla, who added the metro had lost an R11bn BAIC SA Investment to the Coega Special Economic Zone in Port Elizabeth due to the size of the EL port.
“Currently the key limitation of the port is the 10m draught of the berth, which in turn impacts on the viability of direct calls to the EL port by new vessels, which require a draught at least 14m deep,” he said.
Customs specialist at Mercedes-Benz SA Telrita Jacobs urged Transnet to speed up development.
“When we opened the East London plant we were building 120 cars a day. Now we are building over 500 but we are still sitting with the same infrastructure we had donkey’s years ago,” Jacobs said.
East London port manager Sharon Sijako, said there were various developments lined up for the port.
“We have gone to the industry, we have solicited ideas and have compiled a document of what the industry is saying and we have taken all their ideas and tabled them before Transnet and we are waiting the decision from Transnet after going through the report.”..