Cargo could be driven to Walvis, Maputo

The noise around the contentious Customs Bills, which are being fast-tracked by government to pass into law before the forthcoming election, is not going away. Some of the affected parties offer their insights into the impact of the legislation. Cape Town’s Port Liaison Forum has added its voice to the body of dissent surrounding the new Bill. Chairman Mike Walwyn points out that if all containers are consigned to Cape Town and Durban rather than City Deep as is the current practice, it will result in irreconcileable problems from a logistics and physical operational point of view – with port congestion in Durban likely to balloon. “Port congestion and its knock-on effect could see operators diverting cargo to neighbouring ports like Walvis Bay in the west and Maputo in the east. The well-known Trans-Kalahari corridor could become a viable alternative to general port congestion in the Republic resulting from the closure of City Deep,” he said. He further makes the point that the draft bills table a requirement that import and export cargo and containers will only receive final release when “in terminal”. “Should inland terminals not be recognised as Customs control areas then all export containers will have to move to terminal before release. This will mean that the current “buffer” of cleared and released containers, which exists at City Deep and on rail, will disappear. Export stacks will fill earlier and containers lie in stack longer, meaning substantially increased congestion in yard. “Export containers for which declarations have been made but which are stopped or detained for examination will need to be removed from stack and taken to a licensed depot which will seriously affect terminal operations, possibly delaying sailing and resulting in exports missing deadlines.” INSERT & CAPTION The Trans-Kalahari corridor could become a viable alternative. – Mike Walwyn