Original Research

Restructuring Port Governance in South Africa

Ayanda Meyiwa, Mihalis Chasomeris
Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences | Vol 9, No 3 | a74 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/jef.v9i3.74 | © 2016 Ayanda Meyiwa, Mihalis Chasomeris | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 18 December 2017 | Published: 03 December 2016

About the author(s)

Ayanda Meyiwa, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Mihalis Chasomeris, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Full Text:

PDF (533KB)

Abstract

South Africa’s (SA) ports do not have a clearly defined port doctrine. They have certain elements resembling the Anglo-Saxon port doctrine, others the Continental doctrine and still others the Asian port doctrine. Thus, SA encounters conflicting port objectives: it runs a complementary ports system where costs are not reflective of prices charged, and the revenues and costs allocated to various commodity types remain unjustified. This is against the backdrop of intra-port, inter-port and multimodal cross-subsidisation, which found justification in SA’s developmental objectives but has been viewed as unjustifiable under current economic conditions, giving rise to dissatisfaction among various port stakeholders regarding Transnet as a state-owned enterprise and Transnet National Ports Authority’s (TNPA) governance and pricing practices that have not been adequately addressed. Using content analysis, 18 stakeholders’ submissions on the 2013-2014 TNPA tariff application, 15 stakeholders’ submissions regarding the multi-year tariff application, and 16 submissions regarding the 2014-2015 tariff application were assessed. The focus was on finding links between challenges faced by stakeholders and whether solutions would be found through SA adopting a different port doctrine. The findings show that while the Asian doctrine is more aligned with SA’s developmental objectives, adoption of it may prove premature in view of the current and foreseeable economic conditions. The study shows that the local port system may not find a perfect fit into any of the known port models and established port doctrines, but, instead, that SA needs to articulate its own port doctrine.

Keywords

Port economics; port governance; port doctrine; devolution

Metrics

Total abstract views: 2745
Total article views: 1537

 

Crossref Citations

1. South Africa’s port doctrine: dilemmas and the way forward
Ayanda Meyiwa, Mihalis Chasomeris
Maritime Studies  vol: 19  issue: 2  first page: 179  year: 2020  
doi: 10.1007/s40152-020-00166-2