It claims that urgent interim measures are required to provide relief due to the crisis-level bottleneck situation at the rail, port, and roads.
The Umhlathuze Municipality in Richards Bay sued Transnet and the government two weeks ago for allegedly failing to maintain rail infrastructure, which has caused trucks carrying cargo—especially coal—to the port to be severely congested.
Since then, Transnet has confirmed that road freight-loaded cargo has been suspended from entering the Richards Bay port.
Additionally, it is known that Transnet is working to unload 63 anchor vessels at the Port of Durban in 15 weeks, which has caused container offloading delays.
The situation, according to Mimmy Gondwe, the shadow minister of public enterprises for South Africa, poses a threat to both the country’s economy and its entire export industry.
The National Logistics Crisis Committee is requesting a public speech from the district attorney about the actions the government is taking to end the ongoing port crisis. Transnet has a clear strategy to speed up ship processing at ports, including port infrastructure maintenance and repair.
” A national summit to find solutions to the ongoing crisis while providing long-term interventions to increase the efficiency of our port operations” will be held by stakeholders in the export sector, Transnet, and the government. “”