SA’s busiest port in Durban has resumed operations after heavy flooding damaged roads leading to the shipping terminals, and a backlog of thousands of containers will be cleared in the next nine days, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday.
The port has been out of action since last week after torrential rains in the eThekwini region washed away roads and bridges leading to the important hub for exports like grain and metals and imports such as fuel, prompting President Cyril Ramaphosa to cite it as one of the reasons to declare the national state of disaster on Monday.
The storm, which ravaged homes and industrial sites, has killed 450 people and stalled operations for companies such as Toyota and Sappi.
The damage is estimated to run into billions of rand.
Gordhan said the port had since been reopened and Transnet had managed to provide access to its port terminals. However, some backlogs would take well over a week to clear. He estimated that between 8,000 to 9,000 containers had accumulated at the port because trucks could not reach the harbour. These should be cleared in the next nine days.
Problems that affected the damaged western railway line between eThekwini and Cato Ridge should be resolved in the same time.
Transnet was able to respond to consumers’ need for fuel by using the Bluff area near the port. Trucks were allowed to move through the Bluff to access Island View, where the petrochemical facilities are located.
“There is no risk of a fuel shortage as far as that is concerned, and the pipeline is now functional,” said Gordhan.
“Since Wednesday last week, they [Transnet] have had to use all kinds of equipment to dredge the harbour and remove materials from the harbour.
“When we look at the harbour in the future, we need to find ways of ensuring that debris does not come in and disrupt the harbour. As things stand, we have 40 ships incoming and going and that number continues to grow each day,” he said.
The effect of the flooding is set to reverberate across SA as the government reinstated the national state of disaster, which it said would allow it to suspend red tape hurdles and trigger a centralised response.
Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister, explained the new measures to be implemented under the national state of disaster and the powers of the government under the law.
“It signals that the government as a whole intends to deal with the impact of this severe weather in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and other provinces in a holistic manner through an integrated and co-ordinated approach across the three spheres of government,” Dlamini Zuma said on Tuesday.
The Disaster Management Act allows for a disaster period of up to three months and can be terminated early or extended.
Organised business has welcomed the national disaster status as a step in the right direction, though some, including Business Leadership SA (BLSA), expressed discontent about poor maintenance of infrastructure to withstand worsening weather systems in the province.
“The damage in KwaZulu-Natal partly reflects a lack of application of existing regulations, as well as poor maintenance of infrastructure,” BLSA CEO Busisiwe Mavuso wrote on the lobby group’s website.
“In some cases infrastructure failed because it had not been kept in full operating condition.”
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