Moving Transnet’s head offices to E Cape will render Durban Harbour useless: Numsa

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) believes that the decision to relocate Transnet’s head office to the port of Ngqura in the Eastern Cape runs against the market demand strategy that was adopted by Parliament.

Numsa’s KwaZulu-Natal Secretary, Mbuso Ngubane, says the government will hamstring the Durban harbour.

“Looking what their intention is to make this harbour useless so that by the end of the day they can then be able to privatise it and we think that what they are doing is actually against what you could call a market demand strategy which was adopted by Parliament which also emphasise on two things, one is the size of job creation, two it emphasise on the rehabilitation of the infrastructure in this harbour but the new strategy that is being implemented we are not clear where was that strategy adopted and what is it that strategy entails,” adds Ngubane.

The relocation of Transnet office to EC will harm Durban Harbour:

The business community in the city says it is unhappy with Transnet’s decision.

Trade and Investment Export Promotion Manager, Claude Moodley, says the move has affected business confidence.

“We definitely are not happy that the head office is moving to Ngqura and there’s a number of reasons for that but we do understand the reasons behind the move and have to stand behind those decisions has been an outcry from a number of private sector especially those businesses in KZN that insufficient consultation has been done on this matter and it doesn’t affect their business confidence especially when it comes to us the expansion plan and their growth plans for business KZN,” Moodley adds.

Moodley elaborates on his views:

Meanwhile KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala says President Cyril Ramaphosa’s oversight visit to the port of Durban on Thursday is largely to assess its progress in enhancing its efficiency.

Ramaphosa will also be engaging with Transnet’s senior management.

Zikalala says they will also address some challenges the port has been experiencing.

“Firstly is to ensure that we have a comprehensive understanding and ownership of a plan to develop the port but it’s also known that the port in the recent period affected by a number of challenges which are in facts concerning systems and operations in the ports we want to ensure that all of those issues are addressed properly and then the services is improved,” adds the KZN Premier.

More on Zikalala’s views in the video below: