Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism
In the light of a report in June 2024 that identified the Cape Town Harbour as the worst-performing port in the world:
Whether he has had any discussions with the national Minister of Transport on how to improve the performance of the port; if so, what are the relevant details?
Discussions were held with the national Minister of Transport on 11 November 2024 and with the executive management team for Transnet ports in the Western Cape on 12 August 2024.
During the meeting with Minister Creecy, I as Minister, stressed the importance of a competitive port for the achievement of growth for jobs targets in the Western Cape and the country. Minister Creecy responded that Transnet Port Terminals had developed a terminal recovery plan and gave her commitment that port logistics for the 2025 fruit export season would be better managed than the previous seasons. She delegated the Chief Operating Officer of Transnet to return to Cape Town in December 2024 to address specific stakeholder concerns.
A DEDAT official attended the follow up meeting with the Chief Operating Officer and provided details on the matters of concern, including port performance when compared to global good practice; and transporter congestion. The concerns that were raised are systematically being addressed in a collaborative manner between the relevant divisions of Transnet, Western Cape Government and other stakeholders in the port ecosystem.
During the meeting with Transnet regional executives in Cape Town Container Terminal on 12 August 2024, the managing executive outlined the terminal recovery plan. It included the acquisition of new heavy lifting equipment and phased improvement in performance targets. The 47 new truck-trailer combinations that haul containers between the stack and vessels, were demonstrated. Discussions included climate change and learnings that the WCDoA can share from their research on this topic in Mediterranean regions. DEDAT provided a brief overview of WCG initiatives to support logistics development in Port of Cape Town. This includes a digital logistics planning platform and addressing the root causes of transporter congestion.
DEDAT arranged a successful dialogue for all Port of Cape Town stakeholders on 13 February 2025. A presentation was given by the Presidency on the second phase of Operation Vulindlela, which includes port logistics. Presentations were also given by WCG, Transnet and by a shipping line. Stakeholders agreed that container terminal performance is improving. Evidence in support of this agreement includes the reduction in vessel turnaround time from 6 days and 14 hours in 2024, to less than 4 days for May and June 2025. By 22 June 2025, fruit exports through Port of Cape Town were 10% higher for the 2025 season compared to the same period for 2024.
Nine new rubber tyred gantries were received and assembled in the container terminal during May and June 2025. They will enter operations in July 2025, when the next batch of nine will arrive for assembly. This equipment will significantly improve terminal performance.
It is expected that the global ranking of Port of Cape Town container terminals will improve when the World Bank releases the global performance for 2024. This likely to improve even further in 2025, especially in the light of new rubber tyred gantries that will be added to the equipment fleet.