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The DA in the Western Cape has submitted questions to Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, Mireille Wenger, to ascertain the feasibility of transferring authority over the Port of Cape Town to the Western Cape Government.

The Western Cape Provincial Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism has been calling for the implementation of night shifts to increase efficiency since last year. While we welcome the introduction of night shifts at the port to ease bottlenecks, something that could have been implemented much sooner, the overall performance of the port still leaves much to be desired.

A port that is ranked in the top 10 most efficient, rather than the bottom 10 as it currently is, will benefit the economy of the Western Cape as a whole, and could lead significant growth in job creating export-oriented industries. There is no reason why competent management of this resource could not see such an improvement.

The Port of Cape Town is immensely important to the Western Cape economy, particularly our agricultural export sector, and it is time that this key piece of infrastructure is placed in the hands of a competent government.

Issued by Gillion Bosman, MPP - DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism