The South African Port Operations union said on Thursday it would participate in next month’s anti-privatisation strike.
The two-day work stoppage scheduled for October 1 and 2 has been called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions to which Sapo is affiliated.
Sapo announced its comprehensive contingency plan ahead of the strike.
Sapo said plans were initiated to offset a potentially costly backlog in handling of cargo at the country’s ports as posed by the Cosatu strike action.
Cosatu’s strike is aimed at cementing its opposition to the planned privatisation of state-owned assets.
Said Themba Gwala, Sapo general manager: Operations ?Durban Terminals: ”We have put in place a contingency plan to deal with the strike action planned for next week, in consultation with our clients and other service providers.
”For this contingency plan to work, we have enlisted the cooperation of both our clients and the industry.
”The Port of Durban is the country’s busiest port handling 65% of the country’s containerised traffic.
”There are some ports which will be more affected than others and we have had to plan for this.” Gwala said to avoid congestion at the various ports, measures had been put in place to reduce the risk of disruption to clients.
He said as much cargo as possible was being sent out of the Durban Container Terminal before the strike commenced. – Sapa