By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has officially opened the R300-million Nelson Mandela Cruise Terminal at the Port of Durban on Wednesday evening.
“The launch of the Nelson Mandela MSC Cruise Terminal is more than a milestone, “Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the official opening of the terminal, which was previously called the KwaZulu-Natal Cruise Terminal but later renamed.
“It is an important step towards restoring the position of this city as a premier cruise tourism destination, alongside the finest in the world,” he said.
“The global cruise tourism market is worth an estimated $174 billion (around R3.27 trillion) and alongside the City of Cape Town, Durban is perfectly placed as a destination of choice for cruise ships.”
The new terminal was a project led by MSC Cruises and the African Armada Consortium after they won the bid to design, build and operate the new facility in Durban’s harbour in conjunction with Transnet National Port Authorities (TNPA).
MSC was granted a thirty year concession period for the facility.
Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan; Transport Minister, Sindisiwe Chikunga; KZN Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube; Durban Mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda; and South African activist and film maker Anant Singh attended the opening.
“The strategic goal is to offer new and modern cruise terminals that are a gateway to the ports of Durban and Cape Town, to the rest of the country and even to the continent.”
The President touched on the success of the Cape Town Cruise terminal since its opening and how it managed to rake in R1.2 billion during the latest cruise season and wanted Durban top replicate that success.
Ramaphosa said the launch of the new terminal was part “of a wide plan” to develop the port, which has been struggling to cope with traffic out at sea in recent months, causing major delays for businesses in the supply chain.
Head of MSC Cruises South Africa Ross Volk said it was a pleasure and honour for the company to be using the name of late former president Nelson Mandela.
MSC also had to get naming rights from the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
He said the opening was years in the making.
“In 2017 we were awarded the contracted and finally broke ground in 2019. It took us two years to build this facility we’re in today. We actually opened it in December 2021 but it was a soft opening because of Covid,” Volk said.