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The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality needs to establish a task team to investigate a new port operating model, which could culminate in establishing a local port authority.

Yesterday, 7 November 2022, the provincial council of the DA adopted a resolution suggesting a new operating model for the Port Elizabeth Harbour and Port of Nqgura in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Shockingly, in terms of the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index (CPPI), out of 370 ports evaluated, these two critical ports are ranked at 312 and 363, respectively.

The ports are experiencing far-reaching struggles, including:

The recent strike action across the country negatively impacting our import and export capability and placed additional strain on a stressed economy and business environment.

This disruption to our ports compounding an already disrupted global supply chain and, together with existing infrastructure problems and other inefficiencies, has highlighted the risks associated with the current port management model in South Africa. These disruptions have further highlighted the importance of port operations functioning optimally to maintain global competitiveness.

No control over port operations, even though the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, and businesses within the municipality, have a vested interest in seeing these ports become a more competitive destination for global trade.

The DA provincial council, therefore, adopted the following resolution, proposing the following interventions:

That the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality establish a task team to investigate a new port operating model, which could culminate in the establishment of a local port authority to include the municipality, business and any other relevant entity in order to align to international best practice.

That once the new port operating model is finalised, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality lobby national government to consider adopting the new port operating model involving all relevant stakeholders that have an interest in improving Nelson Mandela Bay’s global competitiveness.

Our ports are the economic lifeblood of Nelson Mandela Bay, and the DA will do all it can to work with the multi-party coalition government to ensure that these harbours operate in an optimal and efficient manner

Issued by Andrew Whitfield, MP - DA EC Provincial Chairperson