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SA PORTS DECLARED Y2K COMPLIANT DURBAN

1 November 1999 Sapa

South Africa's seven ports have been declared Y2K compliant, but contingency plans will be implemented to deal with potential problems, a KwaZulu-Natal newspaper reported on Monday.

The Shipping and Transport Industry Year 2000 Forum announced at a recent meeting in Cape Town that it had given the green light to Portnet for Y2K compliance.

Contingency plans would, however, be implemented to deal with potential problems such as a failure in water and electricity supplies by municipal authorities.

Contingency plans would also be implemented to deal with a shortage of staff to assist with manual work if information technology systems failed.

Forum chairman Derek van Zyl said Portnet and the shipping lines had made good progress in developing business continuity plans for the Y2K transition.

"But we all remain concerned about the ability of municipalities to deliver electricity over the transition. We are worried about the lack of contingency plans at local authorities around the country".

Van Zyl said the Forum would ask M2K, the municipal Y2K readiness project, to present a detailed technical report on its Y2K status and comprehensive back-up plans at the forum's next meeting later this month.

Dennis Trudgeon, stakeholder project manager of Portnet's Y2K project, said according to tests undertaken all port terminal services, including container terminals, were Y2K-ready.

City Deep, the inland port in Johannesburg, and vessel traffic service centres, which ensure safe navigation for ships, were also compliant.

Trudgeon said Portnet had implemented transitional management plans to cope with problems that could arise during the changeover.

These included special support arrangements with external technology providers, the availability of critical decision-makers and support staff availability and regular communication updates.

Commercial ports would be closed from 6pm on December 31, 1999 until 6am on January 1 next year, in line with a Y2K risk management decision, but key staff would still be on duty.

Stakeholders could get further updates on the toll free number 0800004476 or at www.portnet.co.za.

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), November 05, 1999

Answers

No one ever said there wouldn't be some successes. Am I gonna ditch my meager store of reserve food over this one?

Go ahead, guess.

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), November 05, 1999.

About time they got finished.

Funny, no European port, Mexican port or Saudi port has been declared compliant.

Maybe they don't matter.

Come to think of it - no US port has been declared compliant, although the St Lawrence Seaway is self-reported compliant. We gave away the Panama to China, so it doesn't count anymore. (Couldn't use it in wartime anyway.)

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 05, 1999.