Defence expo ends on seamless logistics note

As South Africa’s biggest defence expo wrapped up in Cape Town at the weekend, the event was given a resounding thumbs up – both in terms of organisational logistics and record attendance. “Thanks to considerable effort from our Cape Town branch, the logistics for the event was seamless – and even the weather played along,” Brent Olwage of sole on site handling agent and official freight forwarder Sebenza Forwarding & Shipping told FTW from Air Force Base Ysterplaat in Cape Town last week. It’s the fourth year in a row that Sebenza has been awarded the tender for the biennial Aerospace and Defence exhibition and conference – a highly demanding sector that leaves no room for error. Olwage, in conjunction with Lizel Kotze and group operations director Francois van Wyk, co-ordinated the event from head office in Johannesburg. The statistics make impressive reading. “In total we handled 146 shipments, 27 of which moved by sea,” Olwage told FTW. This included 18 container loads as well as 157 645kg of airfreight which moved in on an Antonov 124 and Ilyushin 76 as well as commercial flights. Four Ilyushins have been chartered for the outbound leg in addition to much of the commercial cargo capacity. The cargo was sourced from all over the world, with several countries – like the Ukraine, Turkey and China – represented with pavilions for the first time. Sebenza’s outward-bound logistics marathon began on Saturday when the show ended – but Olwage was confident that forwardplanning would once again ensure a seamless end to the event.