Following urgent action and interventions to decrease congestion and improve operations at the Port of Cape Town, the Western Cape provincial government has welcomed action taken through its ongoing engagements with Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) management.

The Western Cape government states that the efficient and effective performance of the Port of Cape Town is critical to economic recovery and growth for the province; however, ongoing operational challenges have resulted in poor service levels that are impacting on the provincial economy.

The government adds that the Covid-19 pandemic has further aggravated the situation to such a degree that three major shipping lines cancelled calls to the Cape Town port or implemented a Cape Town congestion surcharge.

The urgent action and interventions included considerable effort by all stakeholders in the port logistics chain and resulted in Velile Dube being appointed the new CEO of TPT; a crew of 20 staff members being brought in from the Port of Durban to temporarily assist; and the Port of Cape Town receiving four new straddle cranes to handle shipping containers.

The Western Cape government notes that, while the additional staff returned to the Port of Durban towards the end of July, there has been a consistent effort to contain Covid-19 infections and, with the assistance of the provincial Department of Health and the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDT), this has enabled a number of key personnel to return to work maintaining the six-gang operation.

Further, plans to introduce a seventh gang are under way. 

These efforts have resulted in the average container moves a day increasing from 533 in the week of May 25, to 1 179 at the end of July.

In addition, the efforts during the period also decreased berthing of vessels at anchor from 20 days to one day.

In this regard, on July 31 a vessel docked after waiting only one day, and on August 4 a vessel berthed on the day of arrival.

The provincial government states that this is a significant improvement and that, if this performance is sustained during next week and beyond, it would mean the shipping lines could possibly re-install calls to the Port of Cape Town by the second week of August.

However, the government also notes that additional work remains to be done; and so, in addition to its existing efforts, the DEDT has recently approved a project to integrate data from all fruit packhouses in the Western Cape into a decision-support tool that identifies the best days, times and routes for optimal delivery of containers for export to ease congestion in the container terminal.

The Western Cape government further notes that, through its Red Tape Reduction Unit, it will continue to investigate additional interventions to reduce the cost of doing business in the Port of Cape Town.

Furthermore, Western Cape Finance and Economic Opportunities Minister David Maynier says he looks forward to engaging with national Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Transnet management team to implement the permanent structural changes needed to make the Port of Cape Town a globally competitive port.