Cape Town - Members of the legislature’s standing committee on finance, economic opportunities and tourism had a pleasant surprise when their expectations of a bad news briefing turned out to be wrong.
A briefing to the committee, flagged as being about inefficiencies at the port of Cape Town, turned out to be more like a glowing report about the successes of the collaboration between the province and the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA).
Committee members who attended the briefing expecting to hear the usual tales of doom and gloom about State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) were impressed to hear less about problems and more about viable solutions being put into practice.
Committee member Lulama Mvimbi (ANC) captured the mood when he said: “I was quite worried coming here, thinking there were serious inefficiencies in the port, but the presentation that we saw seemed to build a completely different picture.”
In their presentation the Department of Economic Development and Tourism said it was estimated that container terminals contributed R72.5 billion of the Gross Value Added (GVA) in Western Cape in 2021, and to the creation or sustaining of 225 000 jobs.
They said that taxes paid from these activities topped almost R20 billion.
Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger said the ports in the province were pivotal to the success of the Western Cape economy.
Transnet Port Terminals TPT chief executive Jabu Mdaki said their strategy was to develop an agricultural hub at the port of Cape Town.
