IN DEPTH
Operation Phakisa - a lifeline for marine manufacturing?
Can Operation Phakisa provide a lifeline to the ship repair and building sector? Marine manufacturing has been identified as one of the four pillars of Operation Phakisa, but can this initiative really pick up the slack of more than a decade of talking with little action? With pronouncements being made aimed to bolster the shipbuilding and repair, rig repair and refurbishment as well as boat building sectors – will Operation Phakisa need to ditch the lifeboat and opt for a superhero outfit in order to deliver what the industry needs?
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e launched Maritime Review in March 2002 with an indepth article on the state of facilities available to the ship repair sector. The article focused on Cape Town’s facilities and highlighted issues of cranage, industry cooperation, lack of quayside facilities and the encroachment of the V&A Waterfront. At this time the possibilities of A-Berth were still being mulled over and we ran a separate article on the birth of the Cape Oil and Gas Initiative (COGSI – now the South African Oil and Gas Alliance) where Saldanha Bay was already being pushed as a future offshore refurbishment centre. In the ensuing 13 years some things have changed and there have been some developments, but the overall state of infrastructure for this sector in Cape Town, Saldanha Bay, Durban and other South African ports has not lived up to the needs of the sector. And while some may be tempted to point fingers of blame at the declining oil price for the recent spate of retrenchments being undertaken – this does not paint a truly reflective picture.
Existing facilities need attention A successful and robust marine manufacturing sector should be a given for South Africa with drydocking facilities in Cape Town, Durban and East London as well as some quayside facilities and floating dock options. But existing facilities have needed attention for some time and a call for proposals from industry to become involved in the maintenance and operating of state owned structures came to nought some years back. In fact, it was a process that still has some licking their wounds. At a meeting between Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) and industry at the beginning of February this year, the state of facilities was discussed in the
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MARITIME REVIEW Africa: February 2015
light of timelines identified by Operation Phakisa. The need to maintain and refurbish existing facilities is listed as Initiative 5 amongst 18 initiatives outlined to industry under this programme. TNPA is set to provide the investment for refurbishment and maintenance of existing facilities in Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay and Cape Town. (See table for list of projects and the scheduled timelines on page 34). While the drive from TNPA has been described as positive by industry members who attended the meeting, the consensus is that industry needs to be able to provide some input on the timelines and prioritisation of projects. “The impression that I got was that the Operation Phakisa team have been given a directive that this cannot fail no matter what. It is very encouraging that port infrastructure challenges are being addressed and that there is a clear agenda to work towards. The
concerns expressed are that the execution timelines are currently too long and that the order of priority will need a reshuffle from an industry perspective,” said one stakeholder after the meeting. Industry plans to come together to discuss the points raised by TNPA and reshape the timelines provided to better address their needs. Initiative 5 is long overdue and the cynical will no doubt adopt a “wait and see” approach. Considering that, anecdotally, money has been allocated to graffiti removal in Sturrock drydock at the expense of more pressing maintenance, it’s not surprising. Indeed over the years we have reported many attempts by industry to engage on this particular subject. The dismal state of these facilities even drew the attention of mainstream media when shipping correspondent for the Cape Argus tackled the subject in 2004. Then in November 2004 things started to look more promising as TNPA and Continued on page 34