Cruise industry gets short shrift from Transnet

The pundits can shout till they turn blue in the face, a dedicated facility for large cruise ships in Cape Town is pie in the sky, despite the city’s world-class tourist status. Sanjay Govan, Transnet National Ports Authority’s manager for the port of Cape Town, has been clear on this rather controversial subject all along but talk of such an eventuality will simply not go away. His comment coincided with the recent call to the Mother City port of the 151 400-ton Queen Mary 2 as part of a 103-day round-the-world New York-New York cruise. The magnificent vessel was again consigned to Duncan Dock’s Eastern Mole, offering passengers a splendid view of Table Mountain on one side, the container terminal on the other, a bus shuttle to the sought-after Victoria and Alfred (V&A) and the prospect of a thorough blasting by the infamous south-easter. “Whoever says a dedicated Cape Town cruise facility is a fait accompli has missed the boat,” Govan says dryly. “My view has not changed, neither has the company’s. We do not have the space for a terminal and aside from the huge cost, the current big cruise ship business does not require it.” Smaller and medium sized vessels like MSC Cruises’ MSC Sinfonia are accommodated in the V&A. Govan is unclear as to the cost of a top-class facility but reckons it would probably run to around R1 billion