Cape Town: Member of the Mayoral Committee Alderman James Vos has made an announcement regarding welcoming the private partners at Port of Cape Town.
While making the announcement by Transnet, James Vos said that the Private Partners are most welcome as they are finally seeking the development at the Port of Cape Town which is a long overdue.
Reportedly, the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has issued a call for the interested parties to initiate the bids which are required to acquire, operate, maintain refurbish or construct and transfer a liquid bulk terminal at the port for a 25 concession for continuous period.
Fortunately, the well documented inefficiencies of the port have long been a burden on many South Africans. From the exporters struggling to reach the offshore clients to ordinary citizens who are paying the surcharges for the delayed imported products.
According to the notice released by the Transnet, recently this week, the partnership will be a monumental that signals at the significant shift towards boosting outputs at the Port of Cape Town.
Moreover, potential private sector participation will be immense in the port with the much capabilities to contribute an additional R6 billion in exports.
As per the research from the Western Cape Department of Economic development and Tourism, these contributions will roughly generate 20,000 jobs and yield more than R1.6 billion in additional taxes for five years.
This development underscores the longstanding advocacy of the city Cape Town for a change. Alderman James Vos states, “I have written numerous times to the National Government, calling for this shift in operations and have been in constant dialogue with exporters and companies about the impacts.”
He further said that as they move forward, it is crucial for Transnet to thoroughly vet all bidders to avoid the past mistakes by ensuring that the contracts are awarded to reputable entities.
Alderman Vos emphasised upon learning from previous mis-steps such as the reported issues with an organisation that were contracted to secure a coal line, stretching from Limpopo to KwaZulu-Natal.
“With such developments, we all will have the potential to drive real economic growth in Cape Town and beyond,” said James Vos.
