With a mighty container ship blocking passageway through the Suez Canal, the single-most important link between the dynamic and vibrant economies of Asia and Europe, we can expect more vessels passing SA’s coast in the coming days, weeks and months.
It is an opportunity for South African ports, from Richards Bay to Saldanha Bay to make significant gains.
Huge container ships need refuelling, the mariners need food, water and medical supplies.
The debilitating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic notwithstanding, we have two problems that prevent SA from benefiting from the needs of passing vessels.
The wherewithal and infrastructure, and populist politics.
Let me take a step back.
In the winter of 2014, the presidency launched Operation Phakisa: Oceans Economy.
The overall focus was on identifying key aspects of the Oceans Economy — including protecting the natural ecosystem and maritime transportation — that can be implemented rapidly.
An important aspect of the Oceans Economy programme was expansion of the economy, including and especially, infrastructure development and job creation.
I represented the National Planning Commission on the project.
Under the rubric, Marine transport and manufacturing: Unlocking the Economic Potential of SA’s Oceans, our efforts were driven by the results of a study by the department of environmental affairs.
The objectives were to explore ways in which the economic potential of SA’s marine resources could be optimised further.
It was estimated, at the time, that SA’s oceans could generate an estimated R129-177bn by 2033.
Successful implementation would provide close to a million jobs.
All of this (and more) would require individual, strategic implementation plans by the state and private sector.
Operation Phakisa: Oceans Economy identified specific “potential new growth areas” that had, by 2014, been making little to no contribution to expanding the economy.
And so, at the time, the Cabinet approved the development of a five to ten-year strategic plan to unlock the growth in these “New Growth Areas”.
These objectives dovetailed with those of the National Development Plan 2030.
These are the very high-level aspects of the Oceans Economy initiative.
In a nutshell, if the state and private sector invested in the upgrading of ports — building new docking and maintenance facilities, and local procurement of food for mariners and so on — from Richards Bay all the way around the coastline to Saldanha Bay — we could expand economic activities, create jobs and encourage small- to medium-enterprises ...
A quick survey shows very little progress has been made with investment, implementation and (re)development in South African ports.
The Coega Development Corporation might want to insert itself in the overall Phakisa: Oceans Economy project, but it is a Special Economic Zone, established by Rob Davies — who would go on to serve as minister of trade and industry. In many ways it’s a different kettle of fish ...
A bigger obstacle in the way of tapping into likely opportunities from passing cargo vessels is political.
It is a tragic turn of events that the rise of the EFF — as a catalyst for populism, inward-looking and a peculiar ethno-nationalism — could see us waving the vessels on, and make it difficult for “non-Africans” to enter our ports for maintenance, refuelling or replenishing food.
All the populists have to do is throw about logical fallacies, and make arguments like “our people are starving” as justification for turning away any vessels that may wish to enter any of our ports.
It could also give trades unions (important institutions in any democracy), opportunities for further disruption of society; some of their leaders have already joined the “Radical Economic Transformation” (RET) faction in and outside the ruling alliance.
This faction has already set its sights on overthrowing, or at least defying the presidency, the media and the legal institutions.
This faction is aided and abetted by academics like Patrick Bond of the University of Western Cape, who uses otherwise respectable platforms (like the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt) to repeat the two or three good ideas he had almost 30 years ago.
In particular, and drawing on the work of the late Samir Amin, he pushes the Cold War “ideology” of delinking Africa from the global economy.
Between government inertia, ruptures in the ruling alliances, the rise of populism and the politics of revenge, and underwritten by scholars and thinkers, it is not inconceivable that we will miss opportunities to benefit from ocean traffic that may be redirected from the Red Sea passage to Europe, around the Cape.
So, instead of training local workers in cargo handling, understanding sea and coastal water transport and international shipping, transshipment, and supporting activities (storage and warehousing; salvaging of distressed vessels and cargoes; maintenance and operation of harbour works, lighthouses, and pilotage), we might as well hold up posters all along the coast and tell passing ships “Don’t stop here. We don’t want to be part of the world”.
HeraldLIVE
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