BORDER BEAT: Beitbridge congestion losses through the roof
The agonisingly slow squeeze of northbound freight from South Africa into Zimbabwe has resulted in a loss of $15 126 600 (R242 025 600) for the transport industry, the Federation of East and Southern African Transport Associations (Fesarta) has calculated.
BORDER BEAT: Sars institutes interventions at Beitbridge – finally
The SA Revenue Service (Sars) yesterday confirmed to the freight industry that it had “temporarily discontinued the use of the CN2 gate pass at the Beitbridge border post as of 8 November”.
BORDER BEAT: Unseen efforts to decongest Beitbridge revealed
Looking in from the outside it’s always easy to criticise and point fingers at how others have failed to manage a situation - like the congestion that led to mounting frustration while freight flowing north through Beitbridge came to a standstill recently.
BORDER BEAT: Discontinuation of Sars gate pass decongests Beitbridge
The northbound backlog that has delayed efficient cargo processing at South Africa’s Beitbridge border into Zimbabwe, causing traffic to back up all the way towards Musina 18 kilometres south, appears to have found a CN2 solution.
BORDER BEAT: Truck slips off pontoon, sinks in Zambezi
Another truck has slipped off the pontoon used to ferry rigs across the Zambezi River between Zambia and Botswana – an important touch-point of sub-Saharan logistics where a new multi-modal bridge is ready to come online but remains unused.
BORDER BEAT: Queueing Beitbridge truck drivers attacked at knifepoint
Word among criminals has spread about the sitting-duck situation south of the heavily congested Beitbridge border where northbound trucks are waiting for days to transit into Zimbabwe.
BORDER BEAT: Beitbridge breathes freely as congestion is cleared
Compliments keep coming in from the transport industry about the SA Revenue Service’s decision to discontinue issuing CN2 gate passes at Beitbridge, an intervention that now appears to have completely decongested northbound transits.
Three vessels attacked in under six hours in Singapore Strait
Piracy at sea is not endemic to the coastline off the Horn of Africa and the continent’s Gulf of Guinea, although it may appear this way considering the danger carriers and assorted ocean freight vessels face, particularly in Nigerian waters.
Hijackings and ‘mad’ stone throwing reported on the N3
Two trucks were hijacked after midnight, and a mentally disturbed person without any clothes on and pelting traffic with stones, were reported in Kwa-Zulu Natal on the N3 early this morning.
BORDER BEAT: Beitbridge congestion counter – 21 days
Today marks three weeks since congestion south of the Beitbridge border between South Africa and Zimbabwe intensified, supposedly because of trucks being diverted away from Botswana and its rigid Covid-19 testing procedure.