South Africa’s road freight industry and its clients are still counting the cost of losing access to two crucial ports serving the southern east coast of Africa – Maputo, because of political unrest, and Richards Bay after the ore terminal was shut down over Christmas and New Year.
According to Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association, about R10 million has been lost to trade every day from post-election unrest resulting in border closer on the N4 Maputo Corridor to the Port of Maputo.
A freight executive who asked to remain anonymous, said the unrest which had brought widespread trade destabilisation to Mozambique, especially at the Ressano Garcia border and the capital, “has had a massive impact on our industry”.
The source said information received from the National Treasury in South Africa, indicated that the loss to supply chain and cross-border logistics since civil resistance flared up in Mozambique in mid-October, was calculated to be between R400bn and R500bn.
However, it’s the wisdom of Transnet Port Terminals’ decision to close down the Richards Bay terminal that has been called into question by the likes of Kelly, the freight executive, and many other road freight service providers who lost the use of an alternate port to Maputo.
Kelly has said that the cost of not being able to send any ore to Richards Bay, especially by operators using Maputo, must still be calculated.
Although the Border Management Authority indicated that the Lebombo Border Post on the Maputo Corridor was open, many transporters and their drivers decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
The source said: “It has hit our industry hard. Nothing moved.
“Then, when it was decided to close the terminal at Richards Bay, a lot of our clients decided it wasn’t worth the hassle to try and ship ore at all.”
In December, Transnet Group CEO Michelle Phillips said: “This is not the first time that TPT has made this decision. It is made in the interests of the city during the festive season. Last year (December 2023) we averted litigation by the city by closing for trucks during this time. This matter is well thought through and well communicated to our customers.”
But the freight executive said the litigation referred to pertained to pollution at the port and not to truck traffic on the N2 and John Ross Highway, which a TPT announcement said was under pressure from too much truck traffic.
Although Phillips is correct in stating that ore loads were also refused over the same festive period at the end of 2023, the freight executive said, this time around, circumstances were completely different.
“It’s a very different scenario with the Moz unrest and, to the best of my knowledge, no broad consultation took place with the industry players.”
As per a TPT letter seen by Freight News, dated December 19, all long-distance loads were suspended from December 20. Off-loading and truck evacuation from the port had to be completed by the 23rd.
“It’s utterly incomprehensible that Transnet decided to do this. How do you close a port? It’s a fundamental part of trade.
“They say that it’s done out of concern for holiday-goers but most of the cars on the N2 east head to southern Mozambique, which wasn’t the case this year because of the situation in that country.
“Even beverage carriers pulled their trucks off the line because of the impact unrest in Mozambique has had on its tourism.”
As for the claim that the closure of Richards Bay’s ore terminal was “well communicated”, the freight executive said industry had had “very little to no time” to respond.
“We don’t even know if they consulted with the Minerals Council.”
Out of desperation, transporters fearing violence in Ressano Garcia and denied using Richards Bay, considered driving through Eswatini to get to Maputo.
But supporters of the Podemos opposition party in Mozambique, which has sparked the unrest because of allegations that the October 9 elections were rigged in favour of Frelimo, caught wind of the alternative route and disrupted trade at the Namaacha Border Post.
The executive said Eswatini had even dropped road freight permits to accommodate users of this route to Maputo.
Apart from risk at Namaacha, the road south of Komatipoort through Eswatini and into Mozambique, is also in a deplorable condition.
The source said those transporters who had used the route because of frequent bottlenecking at the Maputo Corridor crossing had complained of needing new tyres after every trip.
Thankfully, port operations at Richards Bay had recommenced and recovered to about 60% of capacity, the source said.
As for the Corridor, loads are trickling through, but transporters are cautiously apprehensive whether or not it’s safe to proceed to Maputo.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen this week with the inauguration of the new president (Daniel Chapo of Frelimo). And the guy from Podemos (Venâncio Mondlane, who stoked the unrest from an undisclosed location outside Mozambique) is actually going to be in Mozambique this week.
“We’re very concerned about what’s going to happen.”
- This is the first report about the current situation on the Maputo Corridor. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the plight of drivers, waiting for days in sweltering temperatures on the N4 south of Komatipoort.
