Transnet chief executive officer (CEO) Portia Derby is under fire, with the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) calling on the public enterprises minister, Pravin Gordhan, to remove her, citing the state of South Africa’s ports.
In a letter to Gordhan last week, the DCCI accused Derby of sabotaging business through lack of service delivery, according to 702.
The letter, sent a week ago and signed by the organisation’s CEO Palesa Phili, said the business community of the city had reached a point where it could “no longer tolerate” Derby’s behaviour which, it said, was “clearly geared towards sabotaging businesses through the lack of service delivery with the current port infrastructure”.
The chamber said that it believed Derby, the head of Transnet Freight Rail Sizakele Mzimela, and Transnet National Ports Authority CEO Pepi Silinga, did not have the best interests of the business community at heart.
Transnet’s executive team “have proven time and time again that they are incompetent and businesses are collapsing and losing revenue daily … we cannot allow this to continue any longer”, the letter stated.
