South Africa’s Skilpadshek Border Post on the N4 Platinum Highway towards the Trans-Kalahari Corridor (TKC) through Botswana continued to be affected by slow coronavirus testing procedures this morning.
According to the Transit Assistance Bureau (Transist), the building backlog at the border stems from Botswana’s inability to cope with the testing of truck drivers for Covid-19.
A decision taken last month not to test long-distance truckers coming through from South Africa provided that they’re in possession of polymerise chain reaction (PCR) negative test results not older than 72 hours, is also not really having the desired effect.
This is despite the fact that the PCR leniency is an attempt to facilitate freight flows through landlocked Botswana.
“Being in possession of a PCR test basically means you don’t have to be escorted to the border for testing or be placed in quarantine,” a Transist spokesperson said.
But unfortunately there’s no speedy option for truckers carrying PCR results.
The Transist official explained that it had resulted in bottlenecking at the border as drivers with the necessary PCR-negative results and those without jockeyed for position to pass through the border.
The notion that Botswana seems incapable of coping with capacity requirements for testing drivers not in possession of PCR results only serves to support criticism that the country’s inflexible Covid-19 testing regimes are impeding its strategic logistics position in the sub-Saharan region.
In the meantime transporters using the TKC to get to Namibia are increasingly avoiding the corridor, preferring instead to bypass Botswana altogether (Read this: https://tinyurl.com/y6xyuuab)
Then, last week, congestion caused by ill-conceived Covid-coping measures at South Africa’s Nakop Border Crossing into Namibia tripped up transporters already rushed to meet same-day delivery timelines. Thankfully Nakop has returned to the ease-of-passage efficiency for which it’s known.
According to Transist, the detour of going all the way around Botswana’s Kalahari border rather than making use of the TKC to get to Windhoek is worth it as transporters would rather stay moving than dwell at borders as is currently the case at Skilpadshek.
