South Africa: Port of Cape Town on Right Track

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has announced the appointment of Sipho Nzuza as Cape Town’s new Port Manager.

Making the announcement at a briefing to stakeholders, TNPA Chief Executive Tau Morwe said Nzuza’s appointment was in keeping with TNPA’s organisational transformation geared to align human resources competencies to ensure delivery on Transnet’s Market Demand Strategy (MDS).

The MDS will see Transnet expand rail, port and pipeline infrastructure with a R300 billion capital investment programme over seven years.

With mega projects on the drawing board, The Port of Cape Town is one of Southern Africa’s most important links to foreign trade. It is ideally suited to serve as a hub for cargoes between Europe and the Americas and Africa, Asia and Oceania. The port is world renowned for its deciduous fruit, perishable and frozen product exports. The fishing industry at the Port of Cape Town is of major proportion. The Port of Cape Town also has one of the few cold stores in the world that can hold products down to -60 °C with a capacity of 10 000 tonnes.

Following the recent celebration of the 720-meter long refurbished container quay, now ships can enjoy an entrance draught of 14.2 meters in any tidal conditions. This makes Cape Town container quay the second deepest container port in Africa. The approximately R4,3 billion expansion project will increase container capacity to one million TEU’s per annum by 2013. The Ben Schoeman container berth has been deepened from the previous 12.7 meters to 15.5 meters, allowing bigger vessels to visit.

Morwe said TNPA was embarking on organization transformation to redefine the role of TNPA in terms of the National Ports Act No 12 of 2005 and to deliver on the MDS.

Nzuza has been appointed as Port Manager at Cape Town at an exciting time. He will have a crucial role to play to contribute to the building of an economic infrastructure that will facilitate the movement of goods and reduce the cost of doing business.

“I have every confidence that he will bring to the job his passion, experience and skills within an environment which is conducive to development,” said Morwe.

Before his appointment as Port Manager, Nzuza was an independent non-executive director offering extensive experience in accounting; auditing and risk management; and strategy formulation and implementation.

He acquired a wealth of knowledge and experience serving on audit and risk committees for the banking industry, provincial and local government departments and district municipalities.

He has worked for eight years for TNPA in marketing and has also acted as Port Manager for the Port of Durban.

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Dredging Today Staff, August 20, 2012