A HISTORIC facelift of the Durban port is on the cards, in a major economic private-partnership development drive that could see the naval base and the petrochemical operations moving house.
In an exclusive interview with The Mercury, the port’s general manager, Moshe Motlohi, unveiled a multifaceted, draft “master plan” that promises to restore the port to its glory days when it was the number one marine facility in Africa.
He said Transnet was in a wide-ranging consultation process towards approval and implementation of the plan, which aims to fast-track the port’s growth from the current 2.9 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers to 11.3 million TEUs annual container handling capacity.
Even though it remains one of the largest ports in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of cargo value and vessel calls a year, Durban lost its lucrative status in recent years to Morocco, followed by Egypt, Motlohi said.
