Western Cape government submits detailed proposals to improve Port of Cape Town
Last month the World Bank ranked the Port of Cape Town 347 out of 351 on its global container port performance list, below all other ports in Africa — including Djibouti, Abidjan, Beira, Maputo, Walvis Bay, Dar es Salam and Mombasa.
CAPE TOWN, June 18 (ANA) – The Western Cape provincial government has submitted detailed comments to the consultative committee working on addressing the challenges affecting the Port of Cape Town, it said on Friday.
In a statement, Western Cape member of the executive council for finance and economic opportunities David Maynier said the submissions were made following the 7th annual Port of Cape Town Port performance roadshow on June 3.
The roadshow allowed port users to review and provide input into plans which will be taken into consideration by the Ports Regulator of South Africa when setting port tariffs, Maynier said.
He said a central part of the submissions was that Port of Cape Town users were currently being charged excessively — some 146% above a global sample average — and yet the port was at the bottom of global rankings in terms of performance.
Last month the World Bank ranked the Port of Cape Town 347 out of 351 on its global container port performance list, below all other ports in Africa including Djibouti, Abidjan, Beira, Maputo, Walvis Bay, Dar es Salam and Mombasa.
Maynier welcomed the commitment made by Transnet Port Terminals to seek global operators to invest in port operations and said this initiative should be included in official planning.
“Major underspending of capital by the Transnet Port Authority in the last financial year is very concerning, and it is now critical that this is addressed so that the larger capital budgets for the new financial year are spent as quickly as possible to address the current inefficiencies,” Maynier said.
The Port of Cape Town is an important channel for exports and imports and a major economic gateway for Cape Town, the Western Cape province and South Africa as a whole.
– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa
