EASTERN CAPE HERITAGE mirrored in its port terminals EAST LONDON In 1836 a surfboat service was provided for the will contain a total of 32 berths stretching further In 1825 the mouth of the Kowie River in Port handling of cargo and passengers, with the fi rst up the River valley and along the south- Alfred was identifi ed as a site for a port and jetty constructed in 1837. western coast. terminal. This was abandoned after the river By 1877 had become the busiest Work has started on new fuel and manganese mouth was found to be too shallow and liable South African port. terminals to replace those in the port of to silting. However, the Charl Malan Quay (present container Port Elizabeth. Construction on the main harbour began in terminal) was only built in 1933, by which time Ngqura is the main transhipment hub for the 1872, and in 1873 work began on the breakwater. Cape Town and Durban had taken much of the South African port system. The original name was Port Rex. traffi c away due to their superior facilities In 2012/2013 Ngqura was the fastest-growing The unusual double-decker bridge (road over rail) NGQURA container terminal in the world, according to Drewry Consultants. Steve Biko bridge spanning the Buffalo River was The construction of the port was authorised by completed in 1935 and to this day, is the only the South African parliament in 2002. bridge of its type in . It is the eighth port to be operated by Transnet Built in the 1970s, the grain elevator on the Port Terminals. West Bank, was the largest in Africa. Gantry crane operator Caroline Ndevulana made PORT ELIZABETH history in October 2009 when she unloaded the fi rst container off the fi rst commercial vessel The harbour was given offi cial port status in 1825, to call on the Ngqura container terminal. with the appointment of a harbour master and collector of customs a year later. The Port of Ngqura contains an eastern breakwater of 2,7 kilometres (the longest in The suburb of Korsten is named after Hollander South Africa), and the secondary breakwater Frederick Korsten, who settled in Algoa Bay in on the western side is 1,1 kilometres long. 1812 and soon became the biggest trader in the area and had his own fl eet of ships. When the Port of Ngqura is fully developed it

EASTERN CAPE’S RICH HERITAGE MIRRORED East London became a contested port when the In 1949 South Africa Motor Assemblers and IN ITS PORT TERMINALS Transkei and Ciskei homelands were formed. Distributors (SAMAD) started assembling vehicles in Having access to the sea would have secured greater Uitenhage. Two years later, in August 1951, the fi rst If you want a snapshot of any period of the history autonomy for the nominally independent homelands. Beetle rolled off the line. Volkswagen South Africa of the Eastern Cape then all you have to do is to look bought control of SAMAD in 1956. at what was happening at a particular point of time Fearing that the port would provide an entry point in the terminals of the ports of East London, Port for the African National Congress and Umkhonto Today the Port Elizabeth car terminal helps support Elizabeth and Ngqura. we Sizwe soldiers the South African government thousands of jobs in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, maintained an enclave stretching from East London while the container terminals in Port Elizabeth For Port Elizabeth the records go back as far as through to King Williams Town. and Ngqura handle the import and export of 1799, with the building of Fort Frederick and the components. All three manufacturers export a range establishment of a British garrison to protect The heritage that remains is the four-lane highway of components, including engines and catalytic shipping operations in Algoa Bay. The fi rst between the two, which was built as a military road. converters, to destinations around the world. recorded exports were in 1812 of sheep and butter to Mauritius. Due to international sanctions, volumes through the Assembly of Mercedes-Benz cars in East London terminals in the two ports also dropped, and their started in 1958 at what was then Car Distributors East London’s port terminal history starts in 1848, importance as drivers of the local economy declined. Assembly (CDA). when the British military decided to build a port to supply the garrison in King Williams Town. Both ports The decision by Ford to pull out of South Africa and In 1992 Mercedes-Benz secured a 76% share in therefore trace their heritage back to the Frontier the subsequent move of the Ford assembly plant in the assembly facility, which continues to assemble Wars and the supply of military equipment, supplies the mid 1980s had a long-lasting impact on the Port award-winning C-Class Mercedes-Benz cars for the and personnel. Elizabeth economy. export and local markets. Having direct links to the main trade routes of the Cargo moved to Durban, which meant there was little The plant is served by the country’s fi rst purpose- time also opened up opportunities for business. investment in the terminals and port. As recently as designed multi-level car terminal. the mid-1990s Port Elizabeth had only one ship-to- The early Kimberly diamond rush in the 1870s relied shore container crane. MANGANESE on mining equipment shipped through East London, while Port Elizabeth experienced a wool boom in the With the lifting of sanctions in 1994 the terminals Manganese exports through Port Elizabeth started 1840s, the ostrich feather boom of the 1880s and once again came into their own. Rapid growth in in May 1963. the mohair boom of the early 1900s. South Africa’s trade with the rest of the world is refl ected in the volumes handled by the facilities – It was decided to build the terminal because the Between 1820 and 1870 Port Elizabeth (then the and the decision to build Ngqura, Africa’s only rail line and port of Durban could not cope with the “Liverpool of the Cape”) was the country’s major port, deep-water terminal integrated with a Special growing volumes. Port Elizabeth is also closer by serving an economy dominated by the export of Economic Zone. rail to the manganese mines in the Postmasburg/ wool, and where inland transport depended on the Hotazel area. ox wagon. NGQURA Transnet Port Terminals is in the process of building The historical links of the terminals with the rest of Ngqura, the newest of the Eastern Cape terminals, a new facility in the port of Ngqura, which will free up the country and sub-region go deep - South Africa’s has become an integral part of the rich maritime the space occupied by the existing terminal to write fi rst gold and diamond exports were handled by the heritage of the province. Since commercial shipping a new chapter in the history of the port terminals of Port Elizabeth terminal. operations started in 2009, it has provided a the Eastern Cape. new gateway to world markets for Eastern Cape There is also a heritage of being at the forefront manufacturers and the agricultural sector. of technology - in 1921 the country’s fi rst ship-to- shore messages were shared between the Positioned as a hub port for the region, Ngqura has port of Port Elizabeth and the Armadale Castle. attracted the world’s major shipping lines, which in Today Ngqura is the most modern deep-water turn link the region to all the major world markets. terminal in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result the citrus industry has been able to expand into new markets such as Canada, and TERMINALS AND THE STRUGGLE manufacturers based in the Eastern Cape can source A 300-year campaign of resistance fi rst against components from all around the world. colonial rule and then against apartheid by the people of the Eastern Cape is also refl ected in the TERMINALS AND THE MOTOR INDUSTRY history of the ports. Inextricably intertwined with the heritage of the Eastern Cape and its terminals is the South African Both the Port Elizabeth and East London ports and motor industry, which has its roots in the province. terminals were developed to support the British military during the Frontier Wars fought between Volkswagen South Africa, General Motors South 1779 and 1879. Africa and Ford South Africa have been importing and exporting through the Port Elizabeth terminal Port Elizabeth was also an important transit point for over 90 years. First was Ford, which started for soldiers, horses and materials heading for the assembling vehicles in 1923. General Motors South front by railway during the Second Boer War. Africa followed in 1926, producing brands such During the apartheid era the ports and their as Chevrolet, Oakland, GMC trucks, Buick, Pontiac, terminals were largely marginalised because of the Oldsmobile and Vauxhall. strong support for the struggle in the region. attic rush attic

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