Transnet’s plan to sell a stake in its largest container port, Durban, to International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) faces a threat from unions who are demanding job security for the 25-year contract.
The United National Transport Union and the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union are demanding that Filipino billionaire Enrique Razon’s ICTSI agree to no job cuts for the duration of the 25-year contract, their general secretaries said.
The unions submitted this and other demands to ICTSI and Transnet SOC Ltd. before December but say they have yet to get a response. Transnet says it has engaged with them.
ICTSI, which operates terminals across six continents, will run and expand Durban’s Container Terminal Pier 2. The terminal accounts for three-quarters of the port’s volumes and 46% of the nation’s total port traffic.
In a 2022 World Bank index of container-port performance, Durban ranked 341st out of 348.
‘We doubt they will agree to our conditions’, said Jack Mazibuko, the general secretary of Satawu, and added that his union plans to write to the parties again to demand an answer. Satawu is a member of Cosatu.
‘The ultimate outcome of this process must enhance the productivity and efficiency of the port terminals’, said Ellis Mnyandu, spokesman for the Department of Public Enterprises, While the minister has met the leaders of both unions, the department doesn’t get involved in procurement processes. ‘There must be no job losses and the conditions of services must remain the same’.
Transnet said it has held numerous consultations with the two unions ‘primarily focused on the treatment of employees’, and said workers won’t lose their jobs as they cross over to the joint venture. Expected growth will minimise the risk of future job cuts, Transnet said.