Bad news coming out of the maritime sector in the form of the Merchant Shipping Bill
The Port of Cape Town brings to mind the story of the curate's egg.
The curate (a priest's assistant) was served a bad egg while having breakfast with his Bishop. When the Bishop remarked, ‘I'm afraid you've got a bad egg’, the curate replied, ‘Oh no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent’.
The idiom ‘Curate's egg’ has come to mean something that is both partly bad and partly good.
And so it is with the Port of Cape Town, so often the source of bad tidings, which is suddenly looking good again with news that it has been earmarked for Private Sector Participation (PSP), along with various other state logistics assets. The Port has been included in the Department of Transport's Request for Information to interested and affected parties ‘in potential Private Sector Participation in Rail and Port Freight Logistics Projects'.
Unsurprisingly the announcement on Sunday has prompted much enthusiasm from both the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town, both members of the Port Liaison Forum, along with the Cape Chamber. In part the news is thanks to active lobbying by ourselves and our partners, in a united push to improve the Port's performance. This effort has now been rewarded.
The private sector has already played a pivotal role in procuring extra rubber-tyred gantry cranes; a formal public-private partnership will almost certainly ensure greater efficiency and oversight, with positive impacts for the entire regional economy.
However, as with the curate's egg, there is bad news too coming out of the maritime sector in the form of the Merchant Shipping Bill which, in its current form, seeks to expand government control over cargo movements along the coast, amid talk of a possible state-owned shipping line. The Bill proposes a government-administered permit system for ‘coastwise’ traffic, a move that might increase state involvement in maritime logistics, even as the state relaxes its stranglehold over our ports.
The Cape Chamber intends making its voice heard to help massage the Bill into a more palatable shape.
The Bill is a reminder for economic stakeholders to remain vigilant in an era of increasing dialogue around crucial policy matters.
Certainly, it helps to be diplomatic, especially if you're a curate talking to a Bishop.
But nobody should feel obliged to eat a bad egg.
John Lawson
CEO of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry