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Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called for greater private sector participation in the Port of Cape Town to drive job-creating economic growth. Hill-Lewis was opening the Ports, Customs and Border Security Conference at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Tuesday, 6 June.

‘If you’re sitting in this venue today, you already know that the efficiency of a country’s ports can either be one of the biggest enablers or the biggest impediments to growth, job creation and the wellbeing of its citizens.

‘And I also don’t need to tell you that South Africa’s ports – including this historic one across the road here – are languishing way down at the wrong end of the global ports efficiency rankings. For a country with our agricultural and mining output, that kind of bottleneck is devastating. And it is mostly self-inflicted by a State-owned entity that suffers from the same malaise as all our other state-owned entities.

‘The solution to our ports challenge is not more state, but rather less state and more private sector investment. It most certainly does not call for yet another State-owned entity, as has been proposed in the draft South African Shipping Bill. A state-owned shipping company is not the answer to our port’s problems. What is urgently required is a far greater level of privatisation. And the national government knows this,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.

Hill-Lewis said a privatised port had the potential to contribute an additional R6bn in exports, roughly 20 000 direct and indirect jobs, and over R1,6bn in additional taxes over five years according to research presented by the Western Cape’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

‘For a country that relies so heavily on trade and exports, it is critical that we are able to move our produce through our ports as smoothly and quickly as possible. If you want to improve efficiencies in any aspect of the South African state – whether it’s the electricity grid, the postal service or the ports – you have to turn to public private partnerships.

‘It should be clear to all that state-owned entities in South Africa are the kiss of death. Eskom is the obvious example, but you can add to this Transnet, Prasa, SAA, Denel, the Post Office and many more,’ Hill-Lewis told delegates.

Hill-Lewis said that private sector participation at the container ports of Durban and Nqura, along with the 25-year Special Purpose Vehicles between Transnet Port Terminals and experienced international terminal operators, will expand infrastructure investment and enhance efficiencies at those ports.

‘There is no reason why Cape Town’s port should not be included in this critical drive to modernise through private sector investment.

‘Already, this metro and this province are where all the meaningful job creation has been done in recent years, and much of this has been through our robust agriculture sector and associated industries. Just imagine what could be possible, in terms of trade and exports, if we could unblock the bottleneck of an inefficient port,’ said Hill-Lewis.

Submitted by the City of Cape Town