The north-south corridor linking the Port of Durban with the copper belt area comprising Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo could serve as a key factor for South African supply chain interests in the region – provided it’s efficient. That’s according to John Rocha, director for Trade Invest Africa at the Department of Trade and Industry (JCCI). “The corridor is a major player for us,” he recently told a gathering of shippers and the freight industry at a Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry seminar. Rocha, though, was speaking out of concern for South African freight sector interests. And although nothing was said about xenophobic arson attacks on the N3, the message was clear: we need to sort out our attitude towards the rest of Africa. Rocha’s primary concern, by his own admission, stems particularly from China’s investor interest on Africa’s eastern seaboard. It could, he said, pave the way for corridor development into central Africa from ports like Dar es Salaam, Mombasa, and Djibouti. “If that happens, we’ll be locked out,” Rocha said. Notoriously bad congestion at the Port of Durban has also not helped matters. And as the midway connecting points of the strategic bridge south of Kazangula between Zambia and Botswana come closer and closer, Namibia is gearing up to unlock logistics all the way from the copper belt through the Caprivi to the Port of Walvis Bay.