Cape Customs stages remarkable turnaround

Ray Smuts GIVE CREDIT where it is due and Cape Town's freight community has nothing but praise for the turnabout in customs service at Cape Town International Airport. Not too long ago, the situation was in reverse as an exasperated Gavin Cooper, chairman of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders in the Western Cape, charged: "Customs service is going down, down. It's such a poor show." So strained was the relationship that SAAFF was forced to to go over the head of Johannes Malgas, customs manager at the airport, to overturn an "arbitrary" decision to no longer clear ships' spares over weekends. "There has since been a dramatic improvement and while there have been occasions when the chain came off we are otherwise totally satisfied with the service," says Gordon Hall, regional manager for clearing agents Kintetsu World Express. Hall told FTW he believed some of the problems of the past could be linked to the transformation process within South African Revenue Service. "Now that the new systems are in place we are getting our clearances out very quickly and the credit must go to Mr Malgas because he listened to and took note of what we had to say." Hall's is by no means an isolated opinion. Wayne Lazo, a director of Bachmann Megafreight, says customs has pretty much moved from "a low ebb" since restructuring to an "era of change" in which personnel are out to satisfy. Lazo believes problems within customs had related to applying qualified staff in the right areas and it was during this period that agents, importers and exporters generally had to put up with clearance delays. "Now the team of Malgas, Evelyn Borchards (imports and exports manager) and Shiraaz Abrahams (operational support) are offering agents excellent backup."