World Bank port report ‘doesn’t reflect’ work done today
The Southern African Association of Freight Forwarders says the World Bank’s recent report on South Africa’s ports has done the country no favours.
The report ranked South African ports among the worst of 405 ports worldwide - with the Cape Town port ranked 405th, making it the worst-ranked port globally.
Ngqura in the Eastern Cape was ranked second-worst, 404th, and Durban, one of the busiest ports in Africa, was ranked 399th.
"The recently released World Bank Container Port Performance Index report paints a grim picture of our container terminals, harming the reputation of South Africa's port terminals at a time when extensive corrective action is well underway,' said SAAFF's CEO Juanita Maree.
"It must be noted that the World Bank analysis focuses on 2023 and does not, by implication, reflect any of the significant work happening today. This work is led by the government through the National Logistics Crisis Committee, which is a private consultive initiative by the government that serves as the anchor.”
Maree said the report served not only as a critique but as a crucial building block for the future.
"At the same time, we must acknowledge that there are valid points in the report, and we must not simply dismiss it but rather constructively use it as another building block and join hands to ensure that we improve our container port performance, the title and stated objective of the report.”
She added that South Africa needs to focus on returning the ports to their rightful place.
"We have what it takes, our ports, and to illustrate this, I mention the Durban Pier 2. Our GCH was around 16.4 moves per hour. This is 33% and 30% below the global average, respectively, but by no means ‘the worst’ in the world. Some examples show that the terminals reached 32 GCH in isolated cases, nearing global best practices. So, one might argue that a container terminal capable of sometimes achieving global best practices can certainly not be considered the worst in the world.
"But at the same time, South African port users come from a background where rates of around 25 were relatively common in the not-too-distant past, and this is what makes the current performance so worrying.”
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