CAPE TOWN – President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday announced that he has instructed two of his ministers to intervene in a go-slow at South African ports, as tensions rising almost brought operations at the Ngqura container terminal in Port Elizabeth to a standstill.
"I have directed Ministers (Pravin) Gordhan and (Ebrahim) Patel to intervene and get our goods to their export destinations urgently," Ramaphosa said while tabling the presidency budget in the National Assembly.
"We cannot aim to grow an economy on the basis of exporting value-added products and then fail to meet our obligations to get goods to international markets safely and on time."
The go-slow, which workers have embarked on to protest promotions at Transnet Port Terminals (TPN), has been ongoing for more than two weeks and is costing the economy millions of rands a day, as car and citrus exports are being affected.