Today this harbour is the busiest in Africa in terms of handling cargo. Facilities include 15 kilometers of quays, 352 meter deep dry docks, cooling storage area for up to 10,500 tons, grain silos with capacity of 40,000 tons. The oil terminals can accommodate tankers bigger than 200,000 tons. The facilities are massive and up to 4,000 commercial ships are using Durban harbour per year.
But it is about to get bigger! Transnet is planning to increase the capacity of the harbour dramatically. Construction work will start in 2016 and the new facilities, some of which will be built on land used by the old airport, will become operational by 2020.
Immigration control, customs, SARS and the port's police are hosted in a building across the harbour. We went to visit them early on a Saturday morning and were lucky to get access to some of the port's managers.
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| Home of the one-stop-shop (immigration, police, customs, SARS) across the harbours entrance |
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| Memorial for Bartholomeuz Diaz (according to my children, my namesake) |