Transnet’s port and rail operations in KwaZulu-Natal have normalised following last week’s unrest in the province.

“The Ports of Durban and Richards Bay have reported normalised levels of operations over the past two days, with all employees having reported for their shifts, and we are working towards clearing the backlog caused by the unrest in the past week,” Transnet said on Tuesday.

The reinstatement of the supply-chain on the key national roads, the N2 and N3, has increased activities at the port terminals as trucks continue to call at the ports.

“The two ports remained open throughout the protests of last week, but the operations were significantly impacted by the shutdown of the warehouses and cold storage facilities, public transport, as well as limited truck movement,” Transnet said.

In Richards Bay, the Multi-Purpose and Dry-Bulk Terminals handled seven vessels over the weekend. Pier 2 in the Port of Durban serviced four vessels, while Pier 1 continues to work on the two berthed vessels.

Transnet has been engaging all impacted customers throughout this time to ensure that services can resume as quickly as possible and where required, to deal with bottlenecks caused by the protests.

“The rail-corridor network between Gauteng and Durban, which was negatively impacted by the unrest, has been re-opened, with train services running since Friday.

“Transnet Freight Rail has since managed to run 42 trains since its re-opening on Friday, and will continue to run more trains as efforts to stabilise this key network intensify,” Transnet said.

Transnet said the challenge of cable theft continues unabated, along with community encroachment on the network.

To deal with these problems, all trains will be accompanied by security to ensure that Transnet is able to provide a reliable service. Transnet’s pipelines network remains operational.

“Additional patrols have been deployed across the entire network, resulting in the arrest of four people for tampering with the pipeline last night. Transnet has confirmed that this is not linked to the unrest.

“Transnet remains on high alert and additional security and protection of critical infrastructure across the network remains in place. A 24-hour Nerve Centre hotline remains operational to monitor and respond to security-related incidents,” Transnet said.

Source: South African Government News Agency