Will a Transport Council really solve our port problems?

President floats the idea to establish a new council

SOUTH AFRICA: Speaking at yet another conference aimed at providing a forum to address South Africa’s logistics and freight woes, President Cyril Ramaphosa proposed that a permanent Transport Council be established to “build the partnership” to deliver a vision for a reformed transport sector that includes road, rail, air and oceans. Editor, Colleen Jacka, looks at the content of his speech within the broader context of South Africa’s maritime transport challenges.

“Modelled on our experience with the Energy Council, this would bring together government, the private sector, and all passenger and logistics service providers across land, air and sea,” he told delegates at the inaugural National Transport Conference in Johannesburg. “Just as collaboration transformed our energy response, cross-sector collaboration of this kind will enable further stabilisation and inclusive growth in transport,” he added.

Focusing on all modes of transport in his speech, the President was only able to touch very briefly on key challenges within each of the separate rail, road, air and sea sectors. This highlights the sheer scope of the country’s transport sector and one has to wonder whether a Transport Council could be as effective as the Energy Council given the diversity of stakeholders and challenges that persist.

Servicing shipping traffic

Ramaphosa is correct, however, in emphasising the importance of streamlining transport initiatives. “When our transport arteries are blocked or inefficient, growth stalls, costs rise and opportunity diminishes. When they flow freely, the country thrives,” he said, adding that the country needs to unlock opportunities and restore competitiveness.

Addressing the current geopolitical environment, Ramaphosa also highlighted the importance of sea trade and port efficiencies.

“The current conflict in the Middle East has placed a spotlight on our ports and their strategic value. When major shipping routes are disrupted, South Africa has an opportunity to position itself as an alternative hub.”

Issues of rerouting ships around the Cape of Good Hope have been on the agenda for the maritime industry for some time due to the Red Sea crisis that saw many shipping lines choose to forgo the Suez Canal in favour of a longer trip around Africa.

Whether this increase in ships’ traffic impacts substantively on actual scheduled port visits is debatable. What was evident, however, was the increased risk of maritime incidents in our waters as well as the need for improved readiness to provide maritime services to shipping while on route.

South Africa must learn from its mistakes in this regard. The country closed a strategic refuelling hub in Algoa Bay just as the Red Sea crisis started to emerge – denigrating South Africa’s reputation as a reliable service provider to the global fleet rerouting around the coast. Instead, other bunkering hubs emerged in the region while South Africa struggled to address the issues that forced the closure.

A maritime transport focus

Launched in 2017, the Comprehensive Maritime Transport Policy (CMTP) articulated the country’s ambition to become an international maritime centre by 2030. It was drawing on the impetus of Operation Phakisa and captured the overall enthusiasm surrounding the blue economy.

Now, almost a decade later, port deliverables identified by Operation Phakisa have not materialised; port efficiencies have steadily declined, and the deadline to corporatise the National Ports Authority has been steadily kicked further and further down the road.

Some momentum is building, however. Initiatives such as Operation Vulindlela as well as the establishment of the National Logistics Crisis Committee (NLCC) have delivered some results and fostered more accountability. A renewed focus on private sector participation in both ports and within the rail infrastructure is unfolding despite some challenges and controversial awards.

The maritime transport sector is also now watching the slow enactment of the Economic Regulation of Transport Act (2024). This will ultimately see the Ports Regulator of South Africa (PRSA) morph into the single economic regulator for the entire ambit of transport. Not without some (more) controversy, the board was finally announced in October last year and the interview process for the Transport Economic Council is currently underway.

PRSA has acted with a razor-sharp focus on South African ports. It has kept an eye on tariffs and effectively pushed back on inflated port tariffs submitted by Transnet on an annual basis. Regular tariff roadshows have created sustained engagement with port users highlighting the work of the regulator as well as port planning.

With the advent of the single transport regulator, ports will be grouped under a single umbrella with all other transport modes. The concern that the maritime focus may be diluted cannot be ignored. For many, the maritime industry already seems to be the stepchild within the Department of Transport (DoT).

Now President Ramaphosa is suggesting the establishment of a Transport Council to mirror the Energy Council of South Africa (ECSA). The idea of a unified Transport Council fails to consider that, while linked, the transport industry is not one industry and the type of monolithic collaboration of these diverse industries within a single board, team and focus makes scant sense.

Separating passenger and freight transport would at least be a good start. Talking about a Freight Transport Council, however, returns us to the fact that the National Logistics Crisis Committee still exists. Morphing this into a logistics or freight focused council to include private participation on the board and within the team has some merit.

Looking at the ECSA’s website it is possible to get an inkling of the structure and scope of work that the president envisages for a transport version. Constituting such a vehicle will not be a small task or happen overnight and will be fraught with challenges to ensure inclusivity.

The question is then: will the maritime transport sector be acceptably recognised within this council and to what extent will another new structure simply duplicate existing efforts by creating more task teams, committees and initiatives that promote more talk and less action?

A Transport Council is not an imperative, but investment, implementation and accountability are.

Accountability to investment and implementation

In his speech, Ramaphosa acknowledged ongoing investment being made in Africa. “Other countries on our continent are investing aggressively in their own rail and port infrastructure, creating both competition and opportunity,” he said, correctly emphasising the dichotomy of these focused infrastructure initiatives.

“It creates competition for our rail and port operations, but it also opens up great opportunities for trade, investment and cooperation throughout our region and across the content,” he added.

Capturing this opportunity and responding to increasing competition, it’s plausible to suggest that South Africa does not need a Transport Council.

“It creates competition for our rail and port operations, but it also opens up great opportunities for trade, investment and cooperation throughout our region and across the content.”

South Africa needs to implement current strategies; accelerate the enactment of enabling legislation; eradicate bureaucracy; deliver budgeted public sector capital expenditure; stamp out corruption; create an attractive landscape for private sector investment, and remain accountable to identified timelines.

The country’s Medium Term Development Plan already places logistics reform at the heart of economic recovery. The key is delivering on the plan, not creating additional structures to talk about the plan or create duplicate plans.

South Africa’s neighbours have reacted nimbly to the shifting geopolitical environment without establishing strategy after strategy.

When South Africa closed its offshore bunkering station, Namibia and Mauritius stepped in to establish their own offerings. According to a source in the ship repair sector in Mauritius, there are five bunker tankers working offshore with another two due to enter into service.

No longer relying on the South African bunker operations, ships scheduled their refuelling for Mauritius and Namibia – effectively ignoring all of the associated marine services that South African companies were hoping to provide to the increased ships’ traffic that the Red Sea crisis delivered.

Namibia added floating docks to its port while South Africa’s ship repair sector is still begging to see Transnet deliver on the promises that Phakisa made to the industry for quay side cranes at Sturrock Dry Dock. The three Cs – Cranes, Capstans and Caissons – remain an ongoing delivery programme more than a decade after the Operation Phakisa dashboard went live.

Now the president is urging industry to consider a new structure at a new conference to address issues that have been raised at every conference for almost three decades.

“To build the partnership that this vision requires, I propose that we consider establishing a permanent Transport Council,” Ramaphosa told delegates who have sat through other conferences; participated in policy developments; attended stakeholder engagements, and joined ample industry committees.

This is not a conference outcome that the industry should be applauding. Ask for a public dashboard to track implementation and accountability. Demand visible action on existing action plans. Petition to fast-track progress ahead of roundtable discussions and talk shops.

But, for the sake of actual progress, do not begin a process to shape yet another structure that simply creates another structure.