Ramaphosa launches rail terminal with 1,000 employees at Durban port

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s investment conferences are yielding results, with the launch of a rail terminal at the Port of Durban with more than 1,000 fulltime employees.

Speaking at the launch of the Newlyn Park Bayhead Rail Terminal project at the Port of Durban on Thursday, Ramaphosa took the time to allay investors’ fear about the state of the port. 

“I set up the presidential eThekwini working group that is going to focus on addressing the challenges we are facing here given rise to by water supply infrastructure.

“All those will be addressed through the co-operation at the presidential working group. This team will revitalise and reposition the Durban port and make sure that this part of our country is set for success,” he said. 

The terminal will facilitate the movement of sea, rail and road cargo through Durban via a multimodal hub providing for the handling, storage, loading and movement of a variety of cargo types.

Ramaphosa said the project illustrated what can be achieved in infrastructure development when business and government work together. The terminal has been built on land leased from Transnet.

“I urge the private sector to partner us. As I have said before, infrastructure is the flywheel of our economic growth and development,” he said.

Ramaphosa said the realisation of the project, which was announced at the South African Investment Conference in 2019, had proved naysayers wrong. 

“Some people, as they heard commitments being made at our conference, just said these are dreams, mere pledges. They tended to dismiss it, but today we are here to prove that what was pledged has actually happened,” said Ramaphosa.

The launch comes just months after the Durban port saw heavy delays and congestion with a backlog of at least 21 days, involving about 70,000 containers. 

Ramaphosa assured investors that his working group would also tackle inefficiencies that have led to the port losing its former glory.

The group is chaired by director-general in the Presidency Phindile Baleni and reports to Ramaphosa every three weeks.

“I have said I want this group to report to me every three weeks, to tell me exactly how we are repositioning eThekwini and how we are addressing the challenges at the Durban port.”

Newlyn, the company responsible for the project, pledged a further R4bn for the development of a near-zero dust emission manganese back-of-port storage and handling facility project at Coega, as well as a similar facility for iron ore at Saldanha Bay.

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