Growing growl of grumbles over box stoppages

In recent weeks, FTW has
been deluged by a flood of
complaints from readers about
the fast-accelerating rate of
lengthy container stoppages
and examinations by the SAPS
Border Police.
Most of these came from
Durban-based complainants,
but FTW has also been
informed that these time- and
money-consuming activities
are even more prevalent in
Gauteng.
And add to that a growing
growl of grumbles from
importers, agents and shipping
companies about an escalating
number of box stoppages also
being conducted by both the SA
Revenue Service (Sars) customs
and the National Regulator
for Compulsory Specifications
(NRCS).
All this has led to a host
of container delivery delays,
dissatisfied importers and
their seriously inconvenienced
customers, and lots of moolah
being either laid out for
container transport and depot
stowage or just plain lost
because of the likes of order
cancellations or late-delivery
fees.
It’s all got so bad that an
idea floating around amongst
the freight industry’s various
representative bodies is that
some sort of legal class action
may be a solution to the SAPS
Border Police contribution to
this box-stop charade.
However, the general feeling
has been that, while accepting
this idea ‘in principle’, this
should only be used as a
‘method of last resort’. One
even told FTW that “interface
first” was a better method of
reaching a solution.
But legal action is also
being considered by individual
importers, whose businesses
are being pushed to the edge
by the time-consuming Border
Police stoppages.
“Stops impact majorly
(sic) on my business and are
economically disastrous,” said
one. “If I don’t deliver to clients
on time, I don’t get paid, I can’t
pay my suppliers and I can’t pay
salaries. Many small businesses
relying on imports face the
same issues.”
This party even suggested
that there was a preference
for targeting small/medium
businesses because they were
“less protected and weaker in
their defence”.
But Pat Corbin of the
Johannesburg Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (JCCI)
may have come up with a
means of putting a stop to this
ever-increasing, and in recent
months fast-accelerating,
number of boxes stopped
by SAPS Border Police inter
alia. This a matter of setting
one government department
against another.
“We are in contact with
the SA Association of Freight
Forwarders (Saaff) and
numerous agents,” he told
FTW, “who all convey the
message that the ad hoc
stoppages have a lot to do with
inconveniencing the trader and
soliciting ‘arrangements’ to
facilitate prompt examination/
release.
“We have been in discussion
with customs for many years
regarding them entering
into a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with
the border police on the basis
traders are really tired of
having their boxes stopped
by so many
agencies.
“It’s only
customs
that has a
competent
risk engine.”
But
Corbin’s new
scheme was
stimulated
at a recent
breakfast
meeting with
the minister
of economic
development,
Ebrahim
Patel. He
pointed
out that Patel was obviously
concerned about the effects of
these stops on the SA economy.
Indeed, when Corbin
suggested that, with all the
entities with the power to
stop boxes, there could be
bribery involved and that it
created a great opportunity for
extortion, the minister didn’t,
as may be expected from a
senior government person,
reject this outright, but rather
“took a great interest”.
“We are co-ordinating input
to go back to the minister,” he
said.
But the one question that
has avoided being answered
is just why boxes have
been stopped at such an
accelerated pace in recent
times. Not just by SAPS, but
also by the other entities with
such powers in the supply
chain.
In discussions with
various senior members
of the freight industry the
answers have been many, but
all purely speculative, with
some even verging on being
slanderous.
However, in a recent
edition of Money Web
Today, Magnus Heystek,
the investment strategist at
Brenthurst
Wealth,
came up with
this answer
answer to
this vexing
question.
In it he
wrote: “SA’s
revenue
collection
over many
years has
been quite
sterling.
Year after
year we were
treated with
the luxury
of revenue
overshoots. Those days are
now gone.”
Rather, he slightly
misquoted Baroness
Margaret Thatcher’s bon mot,
and said that “SA was now
running out of other people’s
money”.
“I would suggest that we
now have officially entered
that ‘running out of money’
stage. It could also explain
this desperate search for
more places to plunder by
certain execs in the ANC.”
And he believes a part of
the shortfall could almost
certainly come from the extra
revenue-earning potential of
an increased number of box
stoppages/examinations.
INSERT & CAPTION
We have been in
discussion with
customs for many
years regarding
them entering into
a memorandum of
understanding with
the border police.
– Pat Corbin