DURBAN: South Africa’s shipping industry has hit a major snag, with hundreds of jobs recently being shed instead of created. Major role-players have laid the blame squarely at the door of the government, saying red tape was hindering progress and tying up R8 billion worth of orders.
In August, the Daily News reported that Durban was poised to become a player in the global shipbuilding industry with a R1.4bn contract awarded to Southern African Shipyards to build nine tugboats, including one of the world’s most powerful tugs. The Transnet contract was seen as a boon for black empowerment as the company had a 60 percent black ownership.
At the time, Maharaj said: “For every direct job we create there will be six others created.” He added that for the first time in 20 years the industry was “looking bright”. But he cautioned then that the government needed “to create an enabling environment for companies” to be able to compete with international companies. At yesterday’s imbizo, low oil prices were cited as another contributing factor in job losses.
A study on the economical potential of South Africa’s oceans had shown that the sector could add as much as R177bn to the GDP and create an additional one million jobs over 20 years.
