DURBAN - THE entire supply chain of the ports of Durban and Richards Bay remained closed yesterday while the harbours’ infrastructure was being closely guarded with the help of the military.
This was the word from Transnet as violent protests continued to bring economic activities in KwaZulu-Natal to a grinding halt, including putting the brakes on passenger trains and the Durban-based major petroleum refinery.
It comes a day after the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) and Sapref both announced the suspension of their operations, with the latter declaring a “force majeure” (circumstances beyond human control).
A source close to the ports’ operations told The Mercury the state-owned enterprise was pinning its security hopes on the SANDF, especially because the harbours and related infrastructure were part of the national key points.
The harbours were operating on minimal private security personnel since a number of officers had failed to turn up for duty due to a lack of public transport, said the source.
Transnet had established a 24-hour nerve centre hotline to manage security-related incidents and is working closely with law-enforcement agencies, including the SANDF, said the parastatal’s spokesperson, Ayanda Shezi.
“Service levels in the ports of Durban and Richards Bay have been negatively affected, as the entire supply chain is closed – including the roads leading into and out of the port,” said Shezi.
“On the rail side, a force majeure has been declared on the Natcor line (Natal Corridor route), which links Durban and Gauteng, due to the unrest. The unrest and subsequent closure of roads has meant employees are not able to report for duty. All affected customers have been notified, and we continue to work on solutions to mitigate the current challenges to ensure that we are able to deliver goods into and out of the country,” he added.
“Transnet has also been served with a force majeure notice by Sapref. Transnet is deploying all its own available resources to avert commercial operations being affected by an escalation of force majeure notices across the essential supply value chain,” said Shezi, who added that the rest of the operations elsewhere in the country continued to operate normally.
Sapref said earlier that the civil unrest and disruption of supply routes into and out of KZN had led to the suspension of the supply of materials critical to the refinery’s operations, and this had led to the shut down of its operations.
“Due to the civil unrest in the country and disruption of supply routes in and out of KZN, suppliers of materials critical to Sapref operations communicated the suspension of deliveries to the refinery due to safety concerns for their staff and damages to their vehicles on the roads,” Pensilla Billat, the refinery’s Contracts & Procurement Manager, wrote to stakeholders.
“Without the said critical materials and with no clarity as to how long the unrest will last, Sapref is unable to sustain refinery operations. Consequently, Sapref has been obliged to make the difficult decision to shut down the refinery. As a result of the aforegoing, Sapref, hereby, declares the occurrence of an event of force majeure, excusing Sapref from performing under the agreement.
Prasa said passenger train services had not operated on any corridors across KZN since Monday.
“A large number of looting/chaotic incidents are now affecting businesses and our operational areas at large.
“Suspension of the train service is not only in Prasa’s interest but also in the interest of the safety of all the assets, commuters and employees,” the state entity said.
Pulp and paper giant Sappi said that as a precaution due to transport disruptions impacting raw material supplies, warehousing and customer deliveries, the Sappi Saiccor, Tugela and Stanger Mills in KZN had temporarily ceased production this week.
“Work on the nearly completed R7,7 billion Saiccor Vulindlela expansion and upgrade project (on the South Coast) was suspended as of Friday, July 9. Global shipments to customers through the Port of Durban have also been impacted due to limitations in service, logistics and closure of warehouse service providers,” said Steve Binnie, chief executive of Sappi Limited.
Professor Irrshad Kaseeram, a University of Zululand-based senior economics lecturer, warned that the unrest would result in “immense negative repercussions for months to come”.
The 688km Natcor network was quintessential infrastructure for the development of the country’s economy “for it links two provinces that contribute 50% to our GDP (Gauteng 34% and KZN 16%)”, he said.
“The disruption of the rail service that carries import commodities (petrol, diesel, certain foodstuffs, grain and mining output) is unfortunate and detrimental to an economy already made fragile by Covid-19 and years of poor governance,” said Kaseeram.
THE MERCURY