CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — A new global assessment has seen the Cape Town port ranked world’s worst out of 400 facilities, prompting urgent discussions about how ongoing operational challenges are impacting trade in and out of the city. The index, published jointly by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, has highlighted a pressing competitiveness crisis within the nation’s trade infrastructure.
Yavi Madurai, President of the African Prosperity Fund and a recognized trade specialist, provided in-depth analysis on the findings. While Cape Town remains a major hub, Durban is the largest port on the African continent. Madurai noted that Cape Town’s performance has fluctuated over the last two years amid an era of global disruptions, making the latest ranking a stark indictment of its current operational efficiency.
Despite the grim ranking for Cape Town, Madurai emphasized that the situation is not permanent and highlighted significant progress elsewhere. The Port of Durban was recognized as the most improved port globally, surging by over 400 points on the index—climbing from a score of negative 720 in 2024 to negative 240 in 2025. This dramatic improvement demonstrates that systemic issues are highly fixable. Additionally, Richards Bay, which handles a massive volume of South Africa’s exported commodities, is seeing positive governance shifts as Transnet has invited private sector players to participate in the management of port activities.
Madurai cautioned against directly comparing Cape Town, Durban, and Richards Bay, as each possesses distinctly different operational dynamics, with Richards Bay being highly specialized. Instead, Cape Town must be benchmarked against other ports across the continent and the globe, especially in light of recent national operational reform promises.
Reframing the narrative, the trade specialist argued that this is not merely a port crisis, but a broader competitiveness crisis. The index effectively measures how efficiently a country connects to global and continental value chains. Because ports function as critical trade infrastructure rather than just transport nodes, the ability to move goods swiftly is essential for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), manufacturing, and comprehensive value chain development.
“If South Africa wants to be the gateway to the continent, as we’ve always said that we are, then we need to understand that we also can’t be Africa’s bottleneck,” Madurai stated.
Addressing the relationship between trade volumes and infrastructure investment, Madurai described a “chicken or the egg” scenario. Increasing capacity is necessary to justify infrastructure investment and development, yet significant investment is required to increase that very capacity.
The specialist warned that South Africa can no longer rely on historical advantages or simply compare itself to European ports. Other African nations are rapidly outperforming the country. Tangier Med in Morocco, for instance, is ranked as the sixth-best port in the world on the exact same index. Meanwhile, Tanzania is undergoing reforms, Kenya is actively investing in its infrastructure, Namibia is modernizing, and Egypt is constructing 15 ports to control its Mediterranean access. Furthermore, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are combining efforts to renew ports along the mineral-rich Lobito Corridor to capitalize on vast economic opportunities.
Ultimately, Madurai stressed that as Africa remains the fastest-growing region globally, its ports are the vital link to the world. To claim true globalization and secure global market access, South Africa must urgently address its competitive standing against its rapidly advancing African peers.
