Faced with the constant underperformance of the Port of Cape Town, the Provincial government and the private sector have been scrambling for the past few years to try to reverse the damage to productivity done by the national government. According to the World Bank's latest container port performance index, Cape Town ranked dead last of all world container ports (naturally, Michelle Phillips, the woman who presided over this decline, was recently promoted to head of Transnet).

Last year several major global shipping companies imposed fines on ships docking in South Africa despite disruptions at the Suez Canal, because of the immense disruptions caused by our ports' delays during even moderately high traffic. While there has been marginal improvement in the handling of refridgeration units, it should not be surprising that we have fallen 58 positions since the World Bank's last report.

The container terminal (CTCT) is critical to South Africa’s fruit export chain, and exports have suffered from the expiry of goods as they wait for shipment. Improvements in cold storage supply have helped buffer this problem, but attempts to resolve it continue to tread water against the rising tide of national incompetence.

Industry stakeholders—including Agbiz, Hortgro, the South African Table Grape Industry (Sati), and the Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum (FPEF)—have partnered with Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) and the Western Cape Government to bolster the terminal’s capacity, after the DA managed to negotiate a seat on a subcommittee tasked with maintaining refrigerated container ("reefer") services.

At the heart of this public-private collaboration lies the installation of two 500kVA generators, each outfitted with 60 reefer container plug points. The recalcitrance of the national government has forced the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism and private industry players to fund this upgrade, to expand storage and cooling capacity during the peak deciduous fruit season. An additional reefer stack aims to alleviate delays caused by high winds, which frequently disrupt port operations.

Theo Boshoff, CEO of Agbiz, described the project as a blueprint for future partnerships between Transnet and the private sector. While exporters are not the terminal's direct clients, he noted that the agricultural sector’s dependence on reliable logistics has forced them to intervene in the TPT over recent years. Oscar Borchards, TPT’s Western Cape managing executive, expressed optimism about the partnership with Transnet, despite historical (and recent) evidence of their consistent poor peformance.

In the trade papers from the agricultural sectors, these private sector actors remain diplomatic about the problems, but it is clear from the constant backsliding in local ports, and the increasing use of Namibian and Mozambican ports for export that the national government is simply not playing ball.

The provincial government is also putting on a brave face. Dr Ivan Meyer, the provincial minister overseeing agriculture and economic development, sells the initiative as part of the province’s “Growth for Jobs” strategy, which targets a tripling of exports by 2035 (whether this is a realistic aspiration or not, let the reader judge). He refrained from direct criticism of the national government's neglect, which has become par for the course in DA communications after the national coalition government.

The new capacity will of course soon be tested. Operations at CTCT are expected to halt on February 15th and 16th due to forecasts of strong winds. The Santa Teresa, a vessel bound for Europe, is among those likely to encounter delays.

Maersk, the Danish shipping giant, has vowed to minimize disruption. While container stacks are being adjusted to mitigate the pause, the company has assured customers that service in South Africa and Europe will proceed uninterrupted once conditions improve.

As Cape Town contends with its capricious weather, the terminal’s latest upgrades may prove timely, testing whether collaboration can smooth the path for South Africa’s exports.

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