The unique harbour 'in' the mouth of the Buffalo river, South Africa's only river harbour, has international status. This is mainly due to the international cargo ships serving the motor industry, specifically Mercedes Benz, whose manufacturing plant keeps this city alive. Ships with a capacity of 5,000 cars can often be seen leaving the harbour. Its not only motor cars though, as the port also boasts the biggest export grain elevator of all SA ports.
Immigration officials from the Dept of Home Affairs are based in town. They are called out when crew from international ships want to disembark, or when the occasional cruise ships visit the harbour.
There are plans to establish a waterfront boardwalk with restaurants and other entertainment on the eastern side of the harbour. This can only make East Londen more attractive.
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| Eastern side of East London harbour |
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| Looking at the western side of East London harbour - for the motor industry |
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| Waterfront development planned for this section of East London harbour |
East London airport, only 10 minutes drive from the harbour, was previously known as the Ben Schoeman Airport. After the democratic elections in 1994, it was renamed to East London International Airport.
The airport is neat and tidy and quite busy on the Sunday morning that we were there. There are daily domestic scheduled flights by SA Airlink, SA Express and Kulula to all the major centres of South Africa. No scheduled international flights, and according to the airport manager on duty, and much to our surprise, it has no immigration processes to deal with international passengers. I will certainly verify this as it is listed by the Dept of Home Affairs as an international airport.
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| The signage does not display 'International' status |
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| East London is also known as Buffalo City |