Transportation
• The province’s two main airports have received upgrades worth R166-million
The Eastern Cape is generally well served in terms of infrastructure and transport connections. The province’s two main urban centres both have efficient airports and ports, and the road network is good in large parts of the province. A third port at Ngqura will boost the province’s ability to export and import. However, the legacy of apartheid still lingers in the eastern part of the province and much still needs to be done to integrate some of the more remote areas into the mainstream economy.
The Eastern Cape Provincial Government has identified investment in infrastructure as a major determinant in growing the economy and creating jobs. The Eastern Cape Provincial Government will spend R16.8-billion on infrastructure over a five-year period starting in 2009. This will create a number of opportunities in a range of sectors, but most particularly in the construction industry as government is targeting roads, health and educational facilities and social infrastructure. Five percent of infrastructure spend will be allocated to co-operatives.
In the 2009/10 financial year, the provincial Department of Transport will have R3-billion to spend, an increase of R241-million over the previous year. At local level, small towns in the province will also be the recipient of public money devoted to infrastructure development. The Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs will spend R6.5-million on the resealing of arterial roads, resurfacing of roads and the instalation of street lights. Local municipalities such as Port St Johns will be the first recipients, but others will follow as the programme aims to stimulate economic development.
The province’s biggest infrastructure projects (dealt with in a separate section of this journal) are the Port of Nqura and the two industrial development zones (IDZs) at Coega and East London. These mega-projects are set to redefine the nature and scope of manufacturing, commerce and trade in the Eastern Cape. In addition to these projects, there have been developments in practically every part of the transport and infrastructure sector, all of which will contribute to improved services.
Air
The two Eastern Cape airports run by the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) both had work done on them as part of general preparations for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Sixty-eight million rand was spent on Port Elizabeth Airport and R98-million was spent in East London.
Port Elizabeth is the only airport in the province with full international status, but with runways of only 1 980m and 1 860m, it receives almost no international flights. There are plans to expand the runway, however, and upgrade facilities with a view to attracting tourists directly to the metro. The airport has the capacity to handle two million passengers per year (although the airport only receives about one million annually), and handles as much as 820 000kg of cargo every month – predominantly flowers, frozen lobster, meat, ostrich skins, motor-vehicle components, mail and courier parcels, and various perishable goods. Business travellers account for 60% of all passengers and 80% of passengers are local.
Bhisho Airport was the recipient of R76-million in funding for an upgrade that was completed in 2009, while Mthatha is expected to receive R35-million as the next project. The provincial government’s Blue Sky Aviation Strategy is targeting these two airports as nodes of development and as a stimulus to further economic growth. At the moment SAA AirLink flies once a week between Mthatha and Johannesburg.
The Eastern Cape is a centre of pilot training, a tradition that goes back to the time of the Second World War. Port Elizabeth has the Algoa Flying Club and the Progress Flight Academy, while 43 Air School in Port Alfred celebrated its 21st birthday in 2009. The fact that training takes place in Port Alfred means that the air school’s airfield is one of the busiest in the country, despite being one of the smallest. Bhisho Airport has recently been designated as a satellite campus of 42 Air School. Students from Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, India and Kenya (Kenya Air Force and Kenya Airways) are among more than 100 trainee pilots at the facility.
Ports The Port of East London is South Africa’s only river port. It handles 150 000 tonnes of cargo on a monthly basis. Major commodities handled include motor vehicles, vehicle components, maize products, machinery, chemicals, sugar, timber, textiles and steel.
Expenditure of R20-million on the car terminal resulted, in September 2009, in a new car-loading record of 170 per hour, fully 15% faster than previously achieved. This was in the process of loading 2 674 Class-C Mercedes bound for the US. The port also has a container terminal, dry- and break-bulk berths, a liquid bulk facility and a drydock for ship repairs.
Most of the cargo flowing through the larger Port of Port Elizabeth comprises agricultural products, timber and automotive industryrelated products. In terms of tonnage handled, Port Elizabeth is the fifth-largest port in South Africa, but the third largest in terms of revenue, an indication of the professional set-up that has gained the port a sound reputation.
The new Port of Ngqura is the most modern deep-water harbour in the southern hemisphere and the centrepiece of the IDZ at Coega. The port is ideally positioned in the sheltered Algoa Bay, midway between Durban and Cape Town.
Roads
The province’s road network is defined by the west-east axis of the coastal N2, with three other national routes (N9, N10 and N6) providing north-south routes through the area.
The road network in the Eastern Cape covers approximately 43 465km, but only 5 102km of this is surfaced. A scheme to maintain roads known as the Sakha Isizwe community-based progamme aims to use 5 000 homesteads that live along rural roads to be responsible for the maintenance of a section of rural road nearby.
Rail
The Eastern Cape wants to ‘move back to rail’, in the words of the province’s former MEC for Transport. The tourism sector already enjoys the services of the small-gauge Apple Express, which has a short, scenic run over the Storms River Bridge, but the provincial government primarily wants to extend rail services for purposes of business travel and cargo transport. The development of the province’s two IDZs will inevitably lead to greater freight volumes, and rail services need to improved to deal with that.
A 10-year plan has been established for the province’s rail network that will include a daily commuter train that will operate between East London and King William’s Town, better utilisation of the construction loops within Motherwell near Port Elizabeth, and the Coega IDZ.
The Kei Rail Project is an initiative funded by the provincial and national government that aims to develop a railway line for freight and passenger services between East London and Mthatha. The Kei Rail weekend passenger service was launched in early 2008 after a R120-million refurbishment was done on the line. A daily service was introduced in the second half of the year. A freight service is also planned for the Kei Rail line as part of the Kei Development Corridor to transport timber, cement and fuel.
ONLINE RESOURCES
Airports Company South Africa: www.airports.co.za
Air Traffic and Navigation Services: www.atns.co.za
Eastern Cape Department of Transport: www.ectransport.gov.za
Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa: www.sarcc.co.za
Railroad Association of South Africa: www.rra.co.za South African Bus Operators Services: www.saboa.co.za
South African Civil Aviation Authority: www.caa.co.za
South African National Roads Agency Limited: www.nra.co.za
Transnet National Ports Authority: www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net
