Gauteng is the throbbing heart of SA’s airfreight market, according to Arnold Garber, chairman of freight systems specialists, Compu-Clearing – and it probably handles three times as many airfreight shipments as the rest of SA put together. Not that seafreight is a small matter. Exactly the opposite, according to Garber. “It’s much more in tonnage terms. But in numbers of shipments, airfreight through OR Tambo airport still rules the roost as far as system demands are concerned.” Garber also pointed to the international element that Johannesburg provides – linking by air directly with any number of overseas airports. “It is also the main regional and international airfreight transhipment point on the Southern African subcontinent,” he said, “because it’s such a major airfreight hub. “You are just as likely to get cargoes going from Libreville to Nairobi via Johannesburg as you are from Libreville to Singapore, via Johannesburg.” And, with Gauteng far and away the industrial and business hub of SA, this also creates certain unusual system requirements. All this has, of course, had a major impact on the freight systems industry – in both its strategic location and its hardware and software development. “In terms of freight systems,” Garber said, “Gauteng is the cradle for systems development in SA. “It’s where everything is tested and implemented, and all the major systems providers are in the province. And, when customs wants to put legislation through its paces, they test it in Gauteng.” The sheer vibrancy of this central SA province is immediately noticeable when you fly into Johannesburg, Garber told FTW. “As you fly into any African city you see just that – a city. “But as you fly into Johannesburg, you see a massive sprawl – of people, industry, buildings, streets, dams, mines, highways, traffic, and more people. “It’s the business and industrial hub of Africa, and therefore the cargo movement hub for the southern part of the continent. “It’s definitely what Compu- Clearing calls its business home.”
