‘Neighbours will set up new transit links’
Sadc region relies heavily on Durban and Richards Bay
The disruption of SA’s road, rail and port networks in KwaZuluNatal in unprecedented looting, arson and violence may cause neighbouring countries to look at alternatives in East and West Africa, a freight specialist has warned. “What has happened in SA in this last week has also impacted hugely on other landlocked countries in the Sadc region,” said Mike Fitzmaurice, CEO of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations. “Those countries that have used SA as a transit route for exports through the port of Durban will now turn to alternate routes for exports, such as Walvis Bay, Beira and Dar es Salaam,” he said.
The disruption of SA’s road, rail and port networks in KwaZuluNatal in unprecedented looting, arson and violence may cause neighbouring countries to look at alternative options in East and West Africa, a freight specialist has warned.
State rail and port monopoly Transnet’s harbours in violenceravaged KwaZulu-Natal are slowly recovering after days of disruption, but the key railway supplying Durban remains closed, the company said on Friday.
Durban and Richards Bay are major import and export ports, with large movements of containers, bulk commodities such as coal and chrome ore, and general freight passing through them. These shipments include copper from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as cargo destined for 16 states in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
“What has happened in SA in this last week has also impacted hugely on other landlocked countries in the Sadc region, which rely heavily on SA for imports of fuel, groceries, pharmaceuticals, mining equipment/spares, vehicle spares, tyres and much more,” said Mike Fitzmaurice, CEO of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Association.
“Those countries that have used SA as a transit route for exports through the port of Durban will now turn to alternate routes for exports, such as Walvis Bay, Beira and Dar es Salaam,” he said, warning this did “not bode well for SA’s global image” and could lead to largescale divestments.
President Cyril Ramaphosa described the widespread looting and civil unrest as a “deliberate, co-ordinated and well-planned attack on our democracy” as part of an insurgency by unnamed people to cripple the economy and create social instability.
“The ensuing chaos is used as a smokescreen to carry out economic sabotage through targeted attacks on trucks, factories, warehouses and other infrastructure necessary for the functioning of our economy and the provision of services to our people,” he said on Friday evening.
Conceding the government was ill-prepared to contain the level of violence and looting, Ramaphosa has overseen the deployment of 25,000 soldiers to KwaZulu-Natal to protect infrastructure and commercial sites.
“The security forces are working with business to ensure the safe transport of fuel, food, oxygen, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and other critical supplies,” the president said.
Transnet said on Friday it had cleared all shipping backlogs at Richards Bay, which is predominantly a bulk commodity export facility and hosts one of the world’s biggest coal terminals, while operations at Durban “continue to improve”.
Operations have been severely disrupted by the violence, looting and arson that swept through the province after former president Jacob Zuma was jailed last week for contempt of the Constitutional Court.
“Service levels in the ports of Durban and Richards Bay have improved slightly since the start of Thursday working shifts, as the country begins mop-up operations after protest action over the past few days,” said Ayanda Shezi, Transnet spokesperson.
“Port and terminal operations are slowly beginning to normalise as the number of employees reporting for shifts starts to increase following restoration of public transport in parts of KwaZulu-Natal,” she said.
At Durban harbour, difficulties in returning to full operations remained, with road closures in the area constraining truck access into and out of the port, resulting in backlogs. At Richards Bay, trucking is operational.
The government has sent troops to KwaZulu-Natal to bolster stretched police services that have largely been ineffective in stopping rampant looting of malls, warehouses, industrial parks and businesses.
The violence has led to shortages of food, medicines and fuel in the province and sparked panic buying in others.
Transnet also owns and operates a pipeline that moves petrol and diesel from Durban to inland hubs. This has been unaffected by the orchestrated violence and looting.
The country’s largest source of fuel, SA Petroleum Refineries (Sapref), jointly owned by Shell and BP, shut on Tuesday because of the violence in Durban. With its capacity of 180,000 barrels a day, the plant supplies a third of SA’s daily fuel consumption.
The biggest constraint has remained road access to Durban from Gauteng, the industrial heartland of SA, with the N3 freeway severely disrupted by attacks on trucking and the burning of vehicles.
About four-fifths of cargo is hauled by road between the two destinations because of the unreliability of the rail network that Transnet calls Natcor.
“On the rail side, work is under way to restart the suspended Natcor line. However, this has been delayed by the need to clear remnants of the looting activities strewn along the railway,” Shezi said.
“Testing of the line is being
undertaken to ensure it is safe. Transnet continues to monitor the situation and will resume rail services on this critical line as soon as it is safe to do so,” she said.
Organised business in the form of Business Unity SA last week pleaded with the government to reopen the N3 freeway. The route has since been reopened, with police and army personnel keeping an eye on it.
Busa estimates up to R12bn worth of businesses and infrastructure has been damaged and it criticised the state’s handling of the crisis as inadequate.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN SA IN THIS LAST WEEK HAS ALSO IMPACTED HUGELY ON OTHER LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES IN THE SADC REGION