New customs system slows down imports Leonard Neill A NEW system introduced by the Department of Customs and Excise at Johannesburg International Airport last week has caused considerable delays in the clearance of imported goods, with some freight agents claiming they now have to wait up to five days before goods are available to their customers. Agents were advised the previous week that the new system, which splits workers into teams, would be introduced on November 7. Documents presented for clearance are stamped with the details of the team which is to handle the consignment. Customs officials advised agents that this was part of its nationwide revamp of existing systems, aimed at speeding up delivery services. The result has been the opposite, says Ed Little, executive director of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF). "I have been told at customs that they have experienced greater problems because the number of entries being received at the airport has risen from around 1 500 per day to almost 4 000, mainly because the Christmas traffic is upon us. One wonders why they chose this time of the year to introduce any form of new system. "As a result there are tremendous delays in the clearance of imports and at one stage it became so bad the customs people took their phones off the hook with all the calls reaching them." SAAFF's vice-president airfreight, Brigitte Weisswange, has requested that agents experiencing severe problems should e-mail her on brigitte@sabila.co.za so that problems can be dealt with at official level where necessary. Despite repeated efforts, FTW was unable to elicit a response from Customs. The problems appear to have affected smaller operators more than the majors. Larger companies told FTW that while there were delays, these had been of a nature which they could handle. In the long-term the new system aims to reduce clearance times from the previous average of 24 hours to four hours.
