Focus to launch cartage service

KEVIN MAYHEW WHEN IT comes to unbridled enthusiasm for the task at hand, there is no person in Komatipoort that tops the general manager of Focus Clearing, Danie Parsons. At the helm of one of the more successful family-owned freight forwarding companies on South Africa’s eastern flank, handling general cargo into and out of both Mozambique and Swaziland, he is also a leading protagonist for the improvement of training for previously disadvantaged individuals entering the business. On top of this he is the local head of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF). With 12 staff and a decade of experience, he handles anything from fuel – interestingly imported through Mozambique from Durban – to the local demands of Game Stores and Woolworths. And 2005 brings new challenges for this young man who took charge after his father and founder of the business, Carl Parsons, decided to call it a day. “We will be setting up a separate carrier service between Komatipoort and Johannesburg in 2005. This is a dynamic business that keeps on moving and we must move with it as it dictates the changes,” he says philosophically. And change there is for all to see. At the Nkomazi Border Plaza where he is based, the mushrooming of smaller black-owned businesses is apparent. “Ours is an industry ideally suited to empowerment, and both my company and I will do everything possible to try to leverage that capacity to distribute the rewards further,” he says.