Africa-Press – Eswatini. SHIPPING of goods to and from the Durban main port has been halted due to the flooding in Durban.
The floods which ravaged Kwa-Zulu Natal have caused devastating destruction to infrastructure. Eswatini Railway (ER) is one of the companies which has been hit hard by the effects of the floods.
ER provides transport services for import and export commodities as well as transit cargo. The parastatal operates a state of the art Dry Port which acts as a satellite port for Durban Port. From Matsapha Industrial site to Phuzumoya ER’s network connects with Northern rail link to access South African ports of Durban and Richards Bay.
Eswatini Railway Communications Officer Sive Manana said they used a number of ports in South Africa to ferry goods coming into the country. These ports include Durban port and Richards Bay with the other port being Maputo Port in Mozambique.
Manana said the Durban port had been hit hard as infrastructure had been damaged and washed away by the floods.
Spared
The communications officer said some railways were washed away resulting into trains not being able to ferry containers from Durban.
Manana said this had resulted into delays and apologised to customers who would not get their goods in time.
“We are hoping that the situation will be back to normal anytime soon and customers will be able to get their goods,” Manana said.
Statement
He further added that since the weather looked promising it might be possible that during the Easter holidays some of the containers would start trickling in.
Maersk shipping giant on Tuesday released a statement announcing that depot operations remained suspended and transporters continued to ground their fleets in response to the floods.
The shipping company stated that their Durban offices remained closed and demurrage depot storage for import would be stopped for one week which is from April 11 until 19.
Yesterday MoneyWeb reported that South Africa suspended shipping at its main port in Durban after the heaviest rains. The operations according to the report were suspended on Monday night.
The harbor is a key trade route for South Africa and its landlocked neighbors. Hawkers who ply their trade by importing goods from Durban said they returned to the country empty handed after they discovered that some of the shops where they bought their goods from were not operating after the heavy rains.
Hawkers Association Chairman Mabhawodi Dlamini confirmed that cross border hawkers who imported goods from Durban had returned home without receiving anything.
He said some eventually bought items at higher prices than they had anticipated due to limited shops which were operational.
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