Page 10 - Maritime Book 1

OUR MARITIME HERITAGE
South Africas ports have a history spanning several centuries, starting with the voyages of discovery in the 15th century.
A number of South Africa’s natural bays in the then Cape Colony and Natal were developed over time into ports that formed gateways between South Africa and the rest of the world.
In 1910, the South Africa Act was passed in Britain which brought these two colonies and the Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State together as the Union of South Africa.
The country’s leaders were adamant that the railways and harbours should be used to unify and develop South Africa’s economy and the South African Railways & Harbours (SAR&H) was established as a proud arm of the government.
Apart from supporting the growing international maritime trade, our ports played an important role protecting our coastline and as transit ports for troops during the second world war.
During the 1970s it was decided by the
government that SAR&H should be restructured along de ned business lines.
In 1981 the state business enterprise was renamed South African Transport Services (SATS) with separate divisions for railway, harbour, road transport, aviation and pipeline operations.
On 1 April 1990, after 80 years of government and parliamentary control, SATS was given company status. A new limited-liability company representing a vast transport network was nally born. Its name was Transnet SOC Ltd.
At that time Transnet had a single port division, Portnet. In 2000 Portnet split into two separate operating divisions: the National Ports Authority handling the landlord business and South African Port Operations handling terminal operations. From 2004 Transnet began restructuring from
a diversi ed conglomerate into a focused bulk freight transport provider. The aim was to reposition Transnet to respond adequately to the government’s economic challenges, growth prospects and customer needs.
This led to the introduction of a new brand in 2007 to signal a focused, integrated and revitalised Transnet.
Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) is one of six operating divisions of Transnet SOC Ltd. It is responsible for the safe, effective and ef cient economic functioning of the national port system, which it manages in a landlord capacity.
TNPA provides port infrastructure and marine services at the eight commercial seaports in South Africa, operating within a legislative and regulatory environment created by the National Ports Act 2004 (Act no. 12 of 2005).
Our single most important purpose is to facilitate
international trade to support the economy of South Africa.
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