Cape Town port digital future hinges on Culemborg
By Adrian Ephraim
WHEN Transport Minister Barbara Creecy toured Cape Town’s container terminal in early November, she saw nine gleaming “red ladies” – new rubber-tyred gantry cranes capable of withstanding 90km/h winds. What she didn’t see was the real bottleneck: 253 hectares of undeveloped industrial land just across the road that could transform how South Africa’s most critical fruit export gateway actually functions.
While Transnet celebrates R4 billion in new equipment, industry insiders and city officials are increasingly frustrated that the port’s digital revolution – and its economic potential – remains hostage to stalled privatisation talks and an untapped logistics precinct that’s been “coming soon” since 2023.
The Culemborg conundrum
Port Manager Rajesh Dana stated that development of the Culemborg precinct adjacent to the port would enhance operations significantly, integrating port, road, and rail connectivity for back-of-port facilities. The first phase was anticipated to start mid-2024, but progress has been glacial.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis urged Transnet to focus on developing the Culemborg Intermodal Logistics Precinct, calling it “the largest undeveloped piece of land anywhere in the city”. For fruit exporters watching their refrigerated containers stack up during wind delays, that unused land represents lost opportunity measured in hours, not hectares.
“It’s the largest undeveloped piece of land anywhere in the city,” Hill-Lewis told Transnet executives at September’s crane launch. “Development of this precinct will radically improve the way the port functions and, with it, the city. It forms a huge piece of the economic growth puzzle.”
The RFI for Culemborg’s design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance was published in 2023, with responses due by November 13, 2023. More than two years later, fruit exporters are still diverting cargo to distant ports while Cape Town’s back-of-port capacity remains theoretical.
The weather excuse – with receipts
According to Andiswa Mesatywa, Transnet spokesperson, the terminal lost 873 operational hours between October 2024 and February 2025 due to weather disruptions – equivalent to 36 full days when cranes sat idle. That’s R100 million in lost export value during peak fruit season alone, based on industry estimates.
But weather has become what one industry veteran calls “a convenient scapegoat.” Stakeholders, notably fresh produce exporters, have complained that wind in Cape Town has become a handy excuse for prevailing inefficiencies such as equipment failure, breakdowns and long lead times with maintenance.
The new anti-sway cranes were supposed to solve this. Instead, the terminal operates at just 13 gross crane moves per hour – far below the global standard of 25-30 GCH. For context, in March 2025, the Port of Cape Town reported an average of 15 gross crane movements per hour, while in 2012, cranes at Cape Town terminal managed 33 gross moves per hour.
The Privatisation deadlock
The government set a short deadline of August 2025 to enter the formal procurement phase for private partners, with the Development Bank of Southern Africa involved in setting up a coordinating unit. That deadline has passed with minimal visible progress.
“We urgently need to fast-track the privatisation of the Cape Town terminal to restore competitiveness,” said Chris Knoetze, managing director of Link Supply Chain Management. Chris Petzer, operations director at Two-a-Day cooperative, explained that although several initiatives are underway, they’ve been too slow, with no path back to the port’s 2012 performance when it reported 33 GCH.
The economic case is compelling: An efficient port could create 20,000 new jobs, add R6 billion in exports and over R1.6 billion in new tax revenue, according to Western Cape Department of Economic Development research.
Yet trade unions remain wary. Trade unions are unhappy about proposed private sector involvement and fear automation could result in job losses.
Colleen Jacka, founding editor of Maritime Review Africa magazine, counters that greater efficiency should improve exports, boost the agricultural sector and create jobs elsewhere, noting that one must weigh job losses outside the port that result from escalating inefficiencies within the port.
What digital transformation actually looks like
The new RTGs are equipped with anti-sway systems and fitted with video cameras providing operators with 3D views to assist with load handling, spreader handling, and crane operation. Other initiatives include adding a fourth shift, a performance-based incentive scheme, and real-time performance monitoring.
This season marks the first implementation of a predictive logistics model developed by Transnova Africa under commission from the South African Table Grape Industry, which has been instrumental in optimising port operations.
But piecemeal digital tools don’t create “smart ports.”
Captain Naresh Sewnath, senior manager of pilotage and vessel traffic services at Transnet National Port Authority, acknowledges that when it comes to digital transformation in South Africa’s port system, “we are quite far advanced, but there is still work to be done”.
Cape Town achieved the most improvement globally in the World Bank’s 2024 Container Port Performance Index, improving by 237.9 points to rise from 405th (of 405) in 2023 to 400 (of 403). That’s progress – from worst to fifth-worst.
Economist Dawie Roodt believes privatising or issuing regular concessions will drive improvement, arguing this would bring the efficiency and investment needed to revitalise Cape Town’s port.
For exporters preparing for the 2025/2026 deciduous fruit season, with its forecast 3% volume increase, the question is whether South Africa is serious about transforming a strategic national asset, or merely painting a broken system with R4 billion worth of lipstick.
