Illustrative image: The Port of Cape Town. (Photo: Getty Images / Bloomberg / Dwayne Senior) | Crane and container. (Image: Freepik) | (By Daniella Lee Ming Yesca) 
One of the biggest developments of 2025 was something that did not happen. It’s about how we no longer fear something happening.
I’m talking, obviously, about load shedding.
About six blocks from my house, in the middle of a small shopping complex, is a small pool hall, known really for its long history as a bar that keeps relatively late hours.
It’s called “Stage Six”.
Five years ago, that was a really cool name. It was kind of right for a small cheeky bar. And it hinted, perhaps, at some kind of back-up power supply. Something that really mattered at the time if you like your beer to be an agreeable temperature.
But I do wonder if anyone driving past it now really thinks automatically of load shedding. The power of the joke has faded to the point where I think some kids are likely to ask their parents why they used that name.
It’s a bit like the jokes during the pandemic (something no one ever wants to talk about). They were funny then. No one cares now.
I do hold out some hope that the same kind of change might happen in our ports.
Pier Two at Durban Harbour is now under the commercial control (but not the ownership) of a private operator.
International Container Terminal Services has a long and established track record of making ports work. As the biggest pier in the biggest port, if it works, things could really change.
In Mozambique, where part of the port of Maputo is run by the South African firm Grindrod, there has been huge growth. They reported today that their volumes increased by 3.4% to 32 million tonnes.
Interestingly their rail volumes were up by 17%. That’s hugely significant.
It shows that there has been some kind of gear change in that area. Presumably, some of it might have been South African goods, or platinum or coal or something, heading for ships through Mozambique, and not through South Africa.
Considering some of the other problems facing Mozambique, I’m quite happy to hear that at least one part of their economy is doing well.
In just two months the huge Mozal smelter is due to switch off. And they will lose 3% to 4% of their GDP.
Read more: South32 to mothball Mozambique smelter in March as power talks collapse
That’s just insane and I can’t help feeling there will be consequences that will be felt here.
While Maputo and Durban are doing well, I have a little pang of worry about the Port of Cape Town.
It emerged during the festive season that the port had been closed for so many days over the past few months that 30 exporting days had been lost. That’s a very long time for those trying to export fruit.
On Friday evening, in a conversation on The Money Show, the consultant for the SA Association of Freight Forwarders in the Western Cape, Basil Hanival, told me that while he was speaking, the wind speed indicator for the port showed it was blowing at more than 100km/h.
Can you imagine sitting in a crane, 10 storeys above the ground, trying to pick up containers weighing hundreds of tonnes in that environment?
I’ve done plenty of silly things in my time (including a trip in my youth to the pub that became Stage Six), but you can count me out of that.
I’d rather turn out for Manchester United than do that.
And, as Hanival told me, there does not appear to be equipment anywhere in the world that could operate safely in those winds.
Durban, of course, has weather problems of its own.
Whenever I drive through that city and go over the rivers near the old airport, I’m reminded of those pictures of containers floating down the river there, after the awful flooding in 2022.
But if you’re trying to export cherries or cars or toilet paper out of the country (#funfact: we export toilet paper) you can’t hold your shipment forever.
And if you know Cape Town is entering a windy period (are there days when it isn’t?) you would probably send your stuff through Durban or even Maputo.
One of the funny things about our ports is that while they might start improving quite quickly, you won’t really notice.
My experience of drinking establishments is, by necessity, sadly limited. But I’ve never come across a pub called “The Stricken Exporter”.
If such a place does exist I hope that the power of the joke fades soon. But not before someone invites me for a drink there. DM