LOGISTICS SPECIALIST Transcargo Services represents the essence of what black empowerment is all about in terms of equity ownership, management, enterprise development and skills transfer, in the view of managing director Madala Mthembu. A division of the black owned and operated commodities trading and logistics management company Tennant Africa, Transcargo believes that large organisations need to focus on their core businesses and to outsource non-core activities to a single service provider who is able to assume ownership of the entire logistics responsibility. Its blue chip client base includes the likes of the BHP Billiton Group, particularly the Samancor division, for which Transcargo has been performing an import procurement function for the past 20 years. Previously it also conducted the shipping audit function. In 2000 Mthembu, with the enablement of Worldwide African Investment Holdings (WAIH), bought Transcargo Services from Nolene Lossau, well known to many in the industry as the executive director of the SA Shippers’ Council. She has passed on her expertise and industry know-how, a legacy about which Mthembu proudly chuckles. “Our preferred service is one of total logistics provision, which entails financing (through Tennant Africa), purchasing, inventory management, cargo tracking, electronic communications and invoicing,” says Mthembu, who also believes that asset ownership plays a key role in efficient supply of these services. “As Tennant Africa we’re on an acquisition trail,” he told FTW. “We’re seriously looking at acquiring viable businesses to which we would add value, especially in their operations. These range from materials handling to port operations, including shipping. We are already making suggestions with regard to the Durban Container Terminal, Port of Port Elizabeth and Coega,” he said. Parent company Tennant Africa is 100% owned by Mthembu. Until July 2004 it was a subsidiary of WAIH, a major South African BEE investment holding company with an estimated R4bn book value. WAIH established Worldwide African Logistics and Trade (WALT) as its trading and logistics business five years ago. It is here Mthembu also saw his dream of an integrated logistics management business. “Nolene, Piet Steenkamp and Louis Tolmay all made it a realisable dream, and Worldwide provided the basis. A black empowerment company empowering one of its own. How sweet!” he concluded.
