FTW’s Kevin Mayhew has visited a number of sub-Saharan countries in the past six months – as well as the vital South African exit points of Beit Bridge, Musina and Komatipoort. He offers a personal perspective of the state of play in countries and their hopes and fears. THE CHINESE threat and promise, the kamikaze direction of Zimbabwe which has aided its neighbours, stronger currencies and generally fair elections all round to put countries on the path to world assistance and certainly greater respectability are the issues that stand out during a visit to the countries of southern Africa. Unfortunately one of the prices to pay for the respectability of elections is that governments tend to slip into “capital project neutral” which means quite simply that vital projects are put on hold before elections to either save money or channel it to more vote-specific functions. The transport and freight and its main ingredients, infrastructure, are not a definable constituency after all. But celebrations about government or provincial achievements are very real elements to retaining positions of political power, so they tend to take precedence in times of the ballot and financial allocations. This investment inertia is no worse felt than in Botswana, where the unofficial moratorium has had an immediate debilitating effect on attitude and morale in business for what is regarded as Africa’s shining beacon of stability, democracy and good government. Botswana hopeful “Government work is what drives the economy and that has been on hold for the recent elections. Hopefully it will begin to ease up now and we can move on,” said one transport operator in the bright and breezy capital of Gaborone with its population of expatriates that effectively makes the country a haven of “transients”. The interesting thing was that only one company out of those FTW interviewed decided not to complain but had footslogged it to private sector clients and picked up enough business to boldly declare that they were weathering the storm and had now been pointed in a future direction that would make them less reliant on State work. A drive to the airport reveals two new developments which possibly point to greater commitment of State funds to construction in the form of the Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) complex and that for Debswana, the joint De Beers Botswana Government diamond company. Unfortunately Debswana probably moves its valuable product extracted from the ground in shoebox sized containers that provide very little sustenance to the overall freight industry. So it is good that they require more infrastructure to briefly provide a fillip to transport and of course employment. Namibia had also come through elections when I visited and this sentiment was echoed by industry there as well. Of course the one exception to the rule is the degenerative exercise called Zimbabwe where the only investment by government appears to be a perceptibly successful desire to make everybody disinvest. Zambia speeds ahead To its north, however, Zambia is moving on at breakneck speed, mainly on the back of greater shine to the international price of the metals – either its own or those for which it provides a transit hub such as bulk commodities from other countries like Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Zambia is also reaping the benefits of strengthened transport routes to Walvis Bay via the Trans-Caprivi Corridor. Maputo to the east in Mozambique, potentially stuck in a transit centre rut rather than a manufacturer and exporter of finished products, tells the same story as Zambia, albeit in a different language. Its port developments are flying off the drawing boards and becoming reality with a generally pumped up attitude to match. Whether it be in citrus, containers, steel (although this is hamstrung by on-going haggling about the railway concession to upgrade the Gauteng-Mpumalanga-Maputo link), sugar, timber and a host of other commodities, the port is buoyant. With the steady expansion of other ports – particularly Beira – the country is certainly beginning to confirm itself as more than a regional one-trick pony. Maputo and Walvis Bay put forward a compelling case not to be viewed as the B-division in the regional contest for market share of the sub-continent’s import and export traffic. Both seem to base their argument on sound common sense economically (discounting even the bottleneck problems of Durban), but still there remains a reluctance to switch to them as alternatives to KwaZulu-Natal’s premier city and Africa’s busiest port. Rather than view themselves as competitors to Durban, they insist that they are trying to take their place as part of the infrastructural needs of the sub-Saharan region, This as it tries to kick start Africa in the wake of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) initiative, regional trading blocs and active moves to try to ease the continent’s distress from To page 6 From page 5 its numerous conflicts, dodgy governments and devastating effects of drought and of course HIV/Aids. There is no doubt that HIV/Aids remains one of the most dire challenges and it appears only Botswana – or more specifically its mining industry – has taken decisive action. Within Africa generally there is lip service paid to recognition of its social impact with much talk but little action producing no real solution to the problem on the macro level. On a micro level the entire transport industry is similarly devastated by the insidious corrosion of the modern world’s most pernicious virus. AIDS hope A glimmer of hope is on the horizon. The Tshwane-based South African Road Freight Association (RFA) has taken a lead role to deal with the problem locally – but it is a transnational pandemic requiring cross-border interventions. Now the RFA’s successful formula established over five years at its roadside wellness clinics is to be adopted in another country, Malawi. Unfortunately, much of this success seems to be based on overseas funding as seed money in the hope that local funding can then sustain the mobile and roadside clinics that seek to educate, detect and help treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs) for both drivers and sex workers as well as their families. It seems that local business – reliant on drivers’ health for survival - is not inclined to dip into its pocket until for some reason the Scandinavians or the Canadians or somebody else does. Interestingly, the sex worker problem and with it the STI/HIV/Aids risk, is in some ways linked to the issue of customs and the difficulties that are experienced at different border posts which result in delays. Stops, sometimes for days as customs official trawl through vehicles or officialdom or both, mean idle drivers that are a magnet for desperate women willing to provide some comfort for cash. That is not to say that these delays are a prime contributor to the high incidence of STI/HIV/Aids, but they certainly provide a perfect hunting ground for sex workers and drivers have a justification for idle (expensive) time. Vehicles on the move are actually easier to police. Given the expanding high level of vehicle tracking that is now possible in the sub-continent, it becomes simpler to track stops or pre-determine where they will take place and then make sure that they do.
