South Africa is in dire need of an economic transformation that will make a real difference. We talk endlessly about black ownership, inclusive growth, and leveling the playing field in strategic areas. But when a ready-made opportunity arrives that promises billions of dollars of investment, thousands of jobs, and true black participation in the fuel value chain, the system finds every possible way to keep it aloft.
That opportunity is at Ambrose Park.
This 74-hectare site is located just outside the Port of Durban and has been purposely allocated within the official Transnet Durban Port Master Plan for black-owned businesses and economic transformation initiatives in bulk liquid fuels and strategic fuel reserves. In 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa and then Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula publicly announced their master plan and made it clear. Ambrose Park is designed to break the oil majors’ monopoly on the Island View Terminal and give historically excluded players real access to critical infrastructure.
The plan was solid. That intent was expressed at the highest level. The site was vacant and available. So why, more than six years later, is Ambrose Park still a ghost district?
In 2017 and 2018, Transnet entered into long-term Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) lease agreements with trusted Black-owned developers. NOOA Petroleum secured a 20-year lease with a 10-year renewal option. Lanele Group signed a 30-year agreement. ICONSTAR and Mainstream were also included in the development. These were not backroom deals. They followed Transnet Group Property’s standard first-come, first-served process, the same process used for over 600 rental agreements across the country.
A multi-disciplinary steering committee bringing together Transnet Group Properties, TNPA, Transnet Pipelines, Transnet Freight Rail and Tenants has been established to fast-track infrastructure, public works, environmental approvals and municipal planning. It met monthly in Durban. The committee was then disbanded in December 2018 without any warning or explanation. Progress has stopped.
In 2019, then Energy Minister Geoff Radebe and KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala were scheduled to officially open the Ambrose Park Terminal. The event was abruptly canceled by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, citing forensic investigations and unspecified charges. The developers waited. A forensic investigation ultimately concluded that there was no wrongdoing in the conclusion of the rental agreement. Still, nothing moved.
Since then, the developers have tried everything: appeals to the Public Protector, representations to the Zondo Commission, submissions to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Energy, Utilities and SCOPA, and even a mediation process initiated by NERSA in 2023, which Transnet has refused to participate in. In October 2025, NOOA Petroleum finally secured a hearing before the Parliamentary Joint Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industrial Competition and Transport, which revealed a pattern of obstruction.
The situation has not changed even now. The Ranelle Group is in court. NOOA Petroleum is awaiting an arbitration hearing. Meanwhile, the City of Thekwini and the KwaZulu-Natal government continue to classify Ambrose Park as a catalytic project. The developer has achieved bankability, secured funding from Afreximbank, African Finance Corporation and local banks, obtained a NERSA construction permit and received environmental clearance. The project is expected to attract more than R10 billion in investment and create more than 2,500 direct and indirect jobs. This will strengthen regional fuel security for Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
But the single biggest obstacle is Transnet, the very company that signed the original lease, and Transnet is now contesting the very contract it signed.
This is not bureaucratic inertia. This is intentional gatekeeping.
Ambrose Park is a ready-to-implement project with financing in place, regulatory approvals secured, and political support from local and state governments. That continued obstruction sends a chilling message to all Black entrepreneurs who believe the government’s rhetoric about change. The door may appear open, but an invisible hand still controls who can walk through it.
South Africa cannot continue to sabotage its own opportunities. If we are serious about inclusive growth, we must stop treating Black-owned businesses as perpetual outsiders in strategic spaces. Ambrose Park was supposed to be operational years ago. The fact that this is not the case raises questions that can no longer be avoided for Transnet and the Department of Public Enterprises.
Is this an intentional exclusion?
The answer is important beyond Durban. It is a question that goes to the heart of whether economic transformation is a genuine national priority or just a slogan we repeat while the same gatekeepers hold the keys.
It’s time to unlock Ambrose Park. This country, and especially the next generation of black businessmen, cannot wait another six years.
Written by Princy Mthombeni – Africa4Nuclear Founder
