CAPE TOWN - Key trade unions and port users yesterday called for plans detailing the restructuring of ports to be put on hold until changes envisaged at Transnet, the state-owned transport giant, had been finalised.
They also requested the postponement until control of this sector had been shifted to the department of transport.
Jane Barret, the policy and research officer at the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), backed by Cosatu officials, told the portfolio committee on transport the management of Transnet under the department of public enterprises was too focused on restructuring rather than transport.
This focus, she said, had created “huge problems” and a knock-on effect for the way ports were run.
She said the draft white paper on the proposed national commercial ports policy and national ports authority contained “problematic elements”.
Satawu and Cosatu were concerned that the policy “is being rushed and driven by the desire of government to proceed with the concessioning of port operations and that there are many areas of weakness”.
This, Barret added, could not be resolved without “extensive” debate and consultation, particularly within the tripartite alliance.
While the draft white paper alleged the ports placed a burden on the taxpayer and the government, there had in fact been “little or no direct investment by government in our ports, and no subsidisation of operations”.
What investment had taken place had been done through loans from Transnet.
But the government wanted to “reduce its involvement in port operations” through concessioning even though no analysis had been done on the effect this would have.
No mention was made of the role of the envisaged new port authority in the maintenance of ageing equipment, which explained many inefficiencies.
Satawu was also concerned about plans to operate the ports authority as a company, with its emphasis on profit, and human resources playing second fiddle.
“One thing bedevilling ports is the use of untrained and unprotected casual workers.”
Roland Naidoo of Railroad Africa, a major container logistics company, told the committee the white paper overlooked the key role being paid by inland ports such as Kazerne in City Deep, which could affect the overall efficiency of ports.
He said several elements of the port policy were already being implemented, mainly through Portnet’s new pricing policy. This would create monopolies between terminal operators and shipping lines.
