Operation Phakisa testing its sails

05 November 2015 - 02:36 By Nompumelelo Magwaza

Operation Phakisa, aimed at unlocking the economic potential of the oceans, is going ahead, according to experts at the African Ports Evolution conference in Durban yesterday. The project, the brainchild of President Jacob Zuma, which was launched last year and which also looks at mining, health and education, has been criticised for not delivering results.Malcolm Hartwell, director at the Norton Rose Fulbright law firm, criticised media reports suggesting that the initiative was another "talk shop".He said Operation Phakisa was one of the first government initiatives that had "excited and garnered support from the private sector"."If you have a grand plan and you want to do everything at once, you stand a chance of running over budget. With Phakisa, a lot of initiatives are much smaller, and those initiatives might affect some small communities."This might not make a difference to everyone in the country, but it will make a huge difference in that community," he said.One arm of Operation Phakisa, the Oceans Economy, could generate about R170-billion a year and about 1million jobs by 2030.In 2010, the ocean contributed about R54-billion to South African GDP and accounted for about 316000 jobs.Hartwell said challenges included funding and skills development."One of the features in the programme was trying to create a stream of artisans and ship captains to feed into the projects," Hartwell said.Praline Ross, project manager at Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal, who is part of the aquaculture initiative in the province, said 24 projects had been selected across the country for implementation by 2019.Laura Peinke, a business leader at the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone, said Operation Phakisa was contributing to the major infrastructure upgrades carried out by Transnet at all ports in the country.This included the ship repairs industry and the oil and gas industry...

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