OPINION PIECE: Dead in the water: Why South African ports can't stay afloat.

Opinion Piece

by Megan Basson

South Africa’s ports, managed by state-owned Transnet, have become one of the country’s biggest operational headaches. Inefficient, unreliable, and ranked among the world’s worst performers, they do not facilitate trade - they strangle it.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Durban, the country’s largest port. Dead last in the World Bank’s 2024 port rankings, Durban has become a symbol of South Africa’s trade dysfunction. Coega, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth fared only slightly better, all ranking in the bottom 10, with the Coega port ranking second last.

Ships often sit at outer anchorage for days, or even weeks, waiting to offload. In Cape Town alone, inefficiencies cost the apple and pear industries an estimated R1 billion in 2024, due to missed shipping windows and lost sales. Cranes and equipment lie broken or neglected, IT systems are outdated and prone to failure, while neighbouring countries move goods faster, cheaper, and more reliably.

The consequences are severe. Exporters lose access to global markets, importers face inflated storage costs, and perishable goods rot on the docks. Industries bleed money as their international competitiveness erodes.

Adding to the strain is excessive container handling. Customs officials, tasked with verifying packing lists, have introduced strenuous procedures that far exceed international norms. Containers are unpacked and repacked repeatedly and unnecessarily, and businesses are billed for every step.

The root cause is no mystery. Like most state-owned enterprises, Transnet has been hollowed out by cadre deployment, mismanagement, and corruption. Maintenance has been severely neglected, and billions have been wasted. Shielded by being a state-owned monopoly, Transnet remains largely unaccountable, while ordinary South Africans bear the cost.

But the crisis extends beyond the ports. With Transnet’s rail network in collapse, freight is forced onto congested, deteriorating roads. Costs rise, port access is clogged, and efficiency plummets further. What should function as a streamlined supply chain has descended into chaos.

For an export-driven economy, functional ports are essential, they are the lifeblood of trade. Yet under continued state control, they have become an international embarrassment. Business confidence in Government’s ability to fix the problem has all but vanished. Calls for full or partial privatisation are growing increasingly louder and private-sector involvement may be the only realistic path to restoring efficiency.

The solution is straightforward: modernise equipment, prioritise maintenance, overhaul outdated customs processes, and open the sector to private investment. What is clear is that without decisive reform, businesses will continue to lose profit and thousands of jobs will remain at risk.

Megan Basson is a Policy Advisor at the National Employers' Association of South Africa (NEASA). 

Image credit of Durban port: Port Technology International

Article headline credit: Moneyweb

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