EASTERN CAPE’S RICH HERITAGE MIRRORED IN ITS PORT TERMINALS

If you want a snapshot of any period of the history of the Eastern Cape then all you have to do is to look at what was happening at a particular point of time in the terminals of the ports of East London, Port Elizabeth and Ngqura.

For Port Elizabeth the records go back as far as 1799, with the building of Fort Frederick and the establishment of a British garrison to protect shipping operations in Algoa Bay. The fi rst recorded exports were in 1812 of sheep and butter to Mauritius.

East London’s port terminal history starts in 1848, when the British military decided to build a port to supply the garrison in King Williams Town. Both ports therefore trace their heritage back to the Frontier Wars and the supply of military equipment, supplies and personnel.

Having direct links to the main trade routes of the time also opened up opportunities for business.

The early Kimberly diamond rush in the 1870s relied on mining equipment shipped through East London, while Port Elizabeth experienced a wool boom in the 1840s, the ostrich feather boom of the 1880s and the mohair boom of the early 1900s.

Between 1820 and 1870 Port Elizabeth (then the “Liverpool of the Cape”) was the country’s major port, serving an economy dominated by the export of wool, and where inland transport depended on the ox wagon.

The historical links of the terminals with the rest of the country and sub-region go deep - South Africa’s fi rst gold and diamond exports were handled by the Port Elizabeth terminal.

There is also a heritage of being at the forefront of technology - in 1921 the country’s fi rst ship-to-shore messages were shared between the port of Port Elizabeth and the Armadale Castle. Today Ngqura is the most modern deep-water terminal in sub-Saharan Africa.

TERMINALS AND THE STRUGGLE

A 300-year campaign of resistance fi rst against colonial rule and then against apartheid by the people of the Eastern Cape is also refl ected in the history of the ports.

Both the Port Elizabeth and East London ports and terminals were developed to support the British military during the Frontier Wars fought between 1779 and 1879.

Port Elizabeth was also an important transit point for soldiers, horses and materials heading for the front by railway during the Second Boer War.

During the apartheid era the ports and their terminals were largely marginalised because of the strong support for the struggle in the region.

East London became a contested port when the Transkei and Ciskei homelands were formed. Having access to the sea would have secured greater autonomy for the nominally independent homelands.

Fearing that the port would provide an entry point for the African National Congress and Umkhonto we Sizwe soldiers the South African government maintained an enclave stretching from East London through to King Williams Town.

The heritage that remains is the four-lane highway between the two, which was built as a military road.

Due to international sanctions, volumes through the terminals in the two ports also dropped, and their importance as drivers of the local economy declined.

The decision by Ford to pull out of South Africa and the subsequent move of the Ford assembly plant in the mid 1980s had a long-lasting impact on the Port Elizabeth economy.

Cargo moved to Durban, which meant there was little investment in the terminals and port. As recently as the mid-1990s Port Elizabeth had only one ship-to-shore container crane.

With the lifting of sanctions in 1994 the terminals once again came into their own. Rapid growth in South Africa’s trade with the rest of the world is refl ected in the volumes handled by the facilities – and the decision to build Ngqura, Africa’s only deep-water terminal integrated with a Special Economic Zone.

NGQURANgqura, the newest of the Eastern Cape terminals, has become an integral part of the rich maritime heritage of the province. Since commercial shipping operations started in 2009, it has provided a new gateway to world markets for Eastern Cape manufacturers and the agricultural sector.

Positioned as a hub port for the region, Ngqura has attracted the world’s major shipping lines, which in turn link the region to all the major world markets.

As a result the citrus industry has been able to expand into new markets such as Canada, and manufacturers based in the Eastern Cape can source components from all around the world.

TERMINALS AND THE MOTOR INDUSTRYInextricably intertwined with the heritage of the Eastern Cape and its terminals is the South African motor industry, which has its roots in the province.

Volkswagen South Africa, General Motors South Africa and Ford South Africa have been importing and exporting through the Port Elizabeth terminal for over 90 years. First was Ford, which started assembling vehicles in 1923. General Motors South Africa followed in 1926, producing brands such as Chevrolet, Oakland, GMC trucks, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Vauxhall.

In 1949 South Africa Motor Assemblers and Distributors (SAMAD) started assembling vehicles in Uitenhage. Two years later, in August 1951, the fi rst Beetle rolled off the line. Volkswagen South Africa bought control of SAMAD in 1956.

Today the Port Elizabeth car terminal helps support thousands of jobs in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, while the container terminals in Port Elizabeth and Ngqura handle the import and export of components. All three manufacturers export a range of components, including engines and catalytic converters, to destinations around the world.

Assembly of Mercedes-Benz cars in East London started in 1958 at what was then Car Distributors Assembly (CDA).

In 1992 Mercedes-Benz secured a 76% share in the assembly facility, which continues to assemble award-winning C-Class Mercedes-Benz cars for the export and local markets.

The plant is served by the country’s fi rst purpose-designed multi-level car terminal.

MANGANESEManganese exports through Port Elizabeth started in May 1963.

It was decided to build the terminal because the rail line and port of Durban could not cope with the growing volumes. Port Elizabeth is also closer by rail to the manganese mines in the Postmasburg/Hotazel area.

Transnet Port Terminals is in the process of building a new facility in the port of Ngqura, which will free up the space occupied by the existing terminal to write a new chapter in the history of the port terminals of the Eastern Cape.

www.transnetportterminals.netLook out for our next feature on the Western Cape

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EAST LONDON In 1825 the mouth of the Kowie River in Port Alfred was identifi ed as a site for a port and terminal. This was abandoned after the river mouth was found to be too shallow and liable to silting.Construction on the main harbour began in 1872, and in 1873 work began on the breakwater.The original name was Port Rex. The unusual double-decker bridge (road over rail) Steve Biko bridge spanning the Buffalo River was completed in 1935 and to this day, is the only bridge of its type in South Africa.Built in the 1970s, the grain elevator on the West Bank, was the largest in Africa.

PORT ELIZABETH The harbour was given offi cial port status in 1825, with the appointment of a harbour master and collector of customs a year later. The suburb of Korsten is named after Hollander Frederick Korsten, who settled in Algoa Bay in 1812 and soon became the biggest trader in the area and had his own fl eet of ships.

In 1836 a surfboat service was provided for the handling of cargo and passengers, with the fi rst jetty constructed in 1837. By 1877 Port Elizabeth had become the busiest South African port.However, the Charl Malan Quay (present container terminal) was only built in 1933, by which time Cape Town and Durban had taken much of thetraffi c away due to their superior facilitiesNGQURA The construction of the port was authorised by the South African parliament in 2002.It is the eighth port to be operated by Transnet Port Terminals.Gantry crane operator Caroline Ndevulana made history in October 2009 when she unloaded the fi rst container off the fi rst commercial vessel to call on the Ngqura container terminal. The Port of Ngqura contains an eastern breakwater of 2,7 kilometres (the longest in South Africa), and the secondary breakwater on the western side is 1,1 kilometres long.When the Port of Ngqura is fully developed it

will contain a total of 32 berths stretching further up the Coega River valley and along the south-western coast.Work has started on new fuel and manganese terminals to replace those in the port of Port Elizabeth. Ngqura is the main transhipment hub for the South African port system. In 2012/2013 Ngqura was the fastest-growing container terminal in the world, according to Drewry Consultants.

EASTERN CAPE HERITAGEmirrored in its port terminals