Staff Reporter.
Transnet said on Friday afternoon it will lift the force majeure it declared on 22 July at its ports’ container terminals after it experienced a cyberattack, causing operations to be conducted manually.
The force majeure will come to an end on Monday 2 August at the container terminals in the ports of Cape Town, Durban, Ngqura and Gqeberha.
“Transnet believes it is now in a position to service its customers and meet all contractual obligations reliably. The [lifting] of the force majeure follows the phased restoration of the NAVIS N4 terminal operating system across the container terminals,” said Transnet in a statement..
Transnet said it would stick to the berthing guidelines in its existing contract, as it believes this will help normalise operations in the most practical way possible and maintain a complementary port schedule for shipping lines.
Meanwhile Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has commended Transnet employees for their hard work to have managed to restore full operations at the ports after a security breach.
Transnet has managed to fully restore operations at the Ports which enables the country supply chain and logistics system to resume normal operations.
The return to operations is good news for the economy, as the Transnet ports and rail system are the backbone of the economy.
The preliminary assessment of the cyber-attack indicates that Transnet and its customer data has not been compromised.
Cyber-attacks have been on the increase in the country and globally. Investigations are underway into the events and due process will take place.
Ghordan started interactions with customers jointly with Transnet management and they established a platform for engagement with CEO’s and senior representatives of affected companies.
This platform enabled timeous communications and feedback from both customers and Transnet and enabled exchange of information and of similar experiences faced by other countries and how they resolved such challenges.
As feedback to the daily meetings held between customers and Transnet port management, the customers have expressed their satisfaction on how the process of recovery and contingency planning has been executed.
The shipping lines, accounting for 70% of the cargo moving across the ports, have given the assurance that the South African Ports will not be by-passed and they will continue to work with Transnet during this recovery period.