Is competition the missing piece in South Africa's port reform puzzle?

> In his 2026 budget speech, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana highlighted the need to remove bottlenecks in South Africa's ports. This follows the statements by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2026 State of the Nation address. The President said South Africa had begun to fix its ports. He pointed out that last month Transnet had signed a deal with an international port operator to manage the country's biggest container terminal in Durban's Pier 2, bringing in investment and getting the terminal back to "world class standards". Last year the Transnet National Ports Authority signed a 25-year deal with FFS Tank Terminals to operate and maintain a Liquid Bulk Terminal in the Port of Cape Town, bringing in more than R195-million in investment and doubling the terminal's storage capacity. This means there are now 10 licensed terminal operators in Cape Town's port, including bulk, fresh produce and passenger terminals, eight of them privately owned. President Ramaphosa promised that later this year, further public-private partnerships would be initiated, through a concession model "that preserves public ownership while mobilising private investment and expertise". But more must be done to bring competition into the harbours, argues economist Ryan Hawthorne. Durban, he says, should have four container terminal operators, and Cape Town two. To do this, he says, the Ports Authority needs to be separated from Transnet, in line with the National Ports act, and the Act itself may need to be amended. Every delay at South Africa’s ports ripples across the economy, from exporters missing shipment deadlines to higher prices for everyday goods. The World Bank estimates a country in the 75th percentile of efficiency will boost trade by 25% if it improves to being in 25th percentile. However, South Africa’s ports are among the least efficient in the world. Durban, for example, has recently been ranked last for efficiency among 403 ports analysed by the World Bank. In a recent paper