Back to the Start…The Privatization of the Southern Port of Port Sudan

Betraying the Security of the Country, Squandering its Resources and Displacing the People

(Translated)

On 27/12/2019, the Government signed a concession contract with a Philippine company for the operation of the southern port of Port Sudan, for a period of 20 years, for 530 million euros. The company pays in advance an amount of 410 million Euros on 03/01/2019, and after ten days it receives the port. Against this background, a severe crisis arose between the government and the workers to be displaced, who mobilized to prevent the company from receiving the port, and the workers closed the gates of the port by placing the containers against them.

We in Hizb ut Tahrir / Wilayah of Sudan want to clarify the same facts about the privatization of the southern port, breach of trust and the displacement of workers, that we mentioned in our leaflet on 10/08/2017 when the privatization tender for the port was presented.

First, the southern port is a profitable institution that generates huge funds for the state treasury. The southern port generates most of the port revenues estimated at 2 trillion pounds annually. Experts estimate the 530 million euros paid by this company in 20 years is only equivalent to 40% of the expected port revenue, which means it is betrayal of public funds, and wasting it, in favor of the capitalist companies, as did the government in the telecommunications sector!

Second, this Philippine company has been managing the port for 5 years and has not done any work to develop or modernize it, as claimed by political mercenaries and the employed capitalists of the company. This company, through its management of the port, knows its profitability, so it craved for the control of the port, and was helped by corrupt politicians who think only of their own interests, and of the foreign-currency crisis created by the government itself, when it obstructed production, and its full obedience to the IMF, and its cursed instructions! So the company thought and deliberated, to take over the port with a new concession contract, and for a longer period (20 years)!

Third, the direct effect of this false contract is to undermine the security of the country by handing over the country's gateway to these transnational companies, whose aim is to make profits only. Then, the displacement of the port’s 1800 workers is another crime, added to the crimes of this failed government. The statement of the port’s director that the company agreed to accommodate a thousand workers, it is not serious, because the company is bound by the terms of the contract, and this is not one of them!! The absorption of a number of workers, and the displacement of others, is a malicious way to divide the workers and weaken their position. So the demand must be the abolition of the contract, and the state must carry out its duty to look after the affairs of the people on the basis of Islam

Fourth: The southern port, as the only container port in the Sudan, is considered in Islam to be one of the community's facilities, which is indispensable. With this description, the port is considered to be a public property. Therefore, the state is prohibited from owning it, as well as individuals and companies. The port must remain a public property, its proceeds must benefit all citizens of the State and it must be administered by the state in the interest of the community.

O our people in Sudan: The government does not have any weight for the Shariah rules, it destroyed the country, and divided it, displaced the people, caused misery, hardship and harsh living conditions. As soon as it commits a crime, this government moves on to the next. This injustice and squandering will not stop except by the law of Islam, implemented by the Khilafah Rashida state, (guided Caliphate) on the method of Prophethood, so join the work for its establishment.

﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَجِيبُوا لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ﴾

“O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life” [Al-Anfal: 24]