Port of Cape Town ready to alleviate Durban Port’s crisis

30 November 2023

The Port of Cape Town is fully operational, with no backlogs or staff shortages, and is ready to handle shipments that have been delayed by the crisis at the Port of Durban. The Port of Cape Town has almost come to a complete standstill due to no vessels coming in.

This was announced by Transnet yesterday in an effort to inform stakeholders of the situation surrounding the Port of Durban crisis.

The Port of Cape Town did not have a single vessel at berth yesterday, and did not move any containers at all.

The DA in the Western Cape calls on stakeholders to keep up to date on the Port of Cape Town’s available capacity, which can go a long way towards resolving the logistics crisis faced at the Port of Durban.

This crisis is costing the economy of the country billions of Rands, and also causing potentially irreparable damage to our country’s international reputation as a port of call. While rerouting shipments to Cape Town would not be ideal, the alternative of having 60 000 containers stranded at sea is much worse.

The National Logistics Crisis Committee must make every possible arrangement to reroute as many ships as they possibly can to Cape Town, and the fact that the Port was at a standstill yesterday is unacceptable in the current situation.

Issued by Cayla Murray, DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism, 30 November 2023