South Africa is in lockdown with more than half of its 72 ports of entry shut down to contain the coronavirus (Covid-1 9).This after President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a statement to the nation on Sunday night, declared a national disaster in the face of rapidly rising Covid-19 cases. At the time of going to press, there were 61 confirmed cases in South Africa.Ramaphosa said 35 of the country’s 53 land ports were shutting down while two of the eight sea ports would close for passengers and crew changes.Surveillance, screening and testing measures have been strengthened at OR Tambo, Cape Town and King Shaka International Airports.“Effective immediately, all non-essential travel for all spheres of government outside of the republic is prohibited. We further discourage all non-essential domestic travel, particularly by air, rail, taxis and bus,” he said. Whilst freight continued to move in the country, it had already slowed down significantly due to the impact of the virus on China and Europe, said Mike Walwyn, a consultant for the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff ).“As yet the bigger freight ports remain open – including the Port of Durban and the big land ports into Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique – but delays are increasing.”He said imports had taken a huge dive.“We are still shipping out, but we are starting to feel the pinch as around the world there is now a shortage of containers in certain areas. Already an equipment imbalance surcharge has been instituted by several groupage operators.”Last week, 53% of the planned sailings out of Europe to the East did not happen.“These are all worrying developments,” said Walw yn, indicating that nearly all of the country’s reefer export trade was in containers that arrived in the country empty.“If they stop arriving then we have a problem. The same applies in the reverse.”Gavin Kelly, spokesman for the Road Freight Association, said exponential cost increases could be expected.“The closing of our borderposts will bring an extra cost packet as it will be about delays.”He said there was still a lot of uncertainty about practical operations on the ground, even at the border posts that were still open.“If someone is returning from a country and is screened at the border post and tests positive for Covid-19, where are they going and what happens to the truck and the cargo in the interim?“Is the government going to have some sort of holding areas at the border posts that are still open? There is much that has not yet been clearly defined and so there is confusion at ground level. There is also a lot of misinformation going around which is adding to that confusion.”He said freight moving along the routes where border posts had been shut down needed to be rerouted at present.All of which, he said, would come at a massive cost.“The financial fall-out will be significant,” Kelly said.Transnet Port Terminals has since said there will no longer be any crew changes at any South African ports, but that commercial vessel operations continued to function across all sea-ports.The ports closed by the president only affected passengers at this stage.Mike Fitzmaurice, CEO of the Federation of East and Southern Africa Transpor t Associations, confirmed that primary land borders such as Beitbridge and others remained open.“Mostly it is your secondary borders that have been closed down but the ramifications are nevertheless going to be felt for some time.”Shortly before this story went to press, Transnet National Ports Authority said it had not yet been informed of the closure of the ports of Mossel Bay and Saldanha.For a comprehensive list of the land borders and sea ports that have been closed, please go to www.ftwonline.co.za.
INSERT: The closing of of our border posts will bring an extra cost packet.– Gavin Kelly