Durban — DA leader, John Steenhuisen, wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish a specialised task team to address the Durban port crisis.
Steenhuisen visited the port and conducted an aerial inspection as Trasnset continues to struggle with the backlog of arriving ships and containers at the port, eNCA reported.
He noticed one of the key sections at the port was completely empty, when it should have been at its busiest and he said it was no surprise that the economy continued to take a beating.
“I’ve never, in my life, seen as many ships stuck out at sea, as there are here now, and it’s as far as the eye can see. When we went over the Durban harbour, what we noticed was a number of key areas that should be offloading, and loading containers, but they are empty.”
“There’s no question that many containers have sell-by dates, which may force some chain stores to cancel orders not delivered on time. With many of our retailers, porters and our citizens buckling under the weight of failing g0vernance, load shedding and water crises,” he added.
According to EWN, Steenhuisen said that the paralysis was tarnishing the nation’s desirability as an investment destination for international trade.
“It’s not good enough to stand up and threaten that heads are going to roll, that things are going to get better. We keep being told that things are going to get better but they’re actually getting worse. Everything that government is running a monopoly is pushing us even further down into the economic hole and it’s really compromising our ability to grow our economy, create jobs.”
DA KZN Chairperson, Dean MacPherson, said the DA was taking the Durban port crisis seriously and had held both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, responsible for failing to address the issue at hand.
The DA is taking the Durban Port Crisis seriously, driving accountability from Minister, Pravin Gordhan who has done absolutely nothing to arrest these crisis. We are also holding President Cyril Ramaphosa accountable who has not bothered to address these crisis.
Dean… pic.twitter.com/UfLGpZseAF
— DA KZN (@DA_KZN) November 27, 2023
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
