Massive delays as rain ravages Angola’s roads

AN EXTENDED rainy season in Angola is playing havoc with road conditions and adding significantly to transit times for shippers who discharge their cargo in Durban and roadhaul it to Angola to avoid the heavily congested port of Luanda. “The rainy season usually starts in October and runs until January, but things are still very wet up there,” Gerrie Coetzee of road haulage company Castle Transport told FTW. “With the congestion at Luanda port, there are more and more trucks eating up the road. The condition has deteriorated to such a degree that I am very worried about the safety of my drivers. We have even suspended some of our coverage to the more remote areas. ”While cargo into Luanda has arrived in 14 days in the past, it is now taking up to six weeks, he said. “It is difficult to give a transit time because the trucks are simply not moving,” adds Elmarie Breedt of Makamba Clearing and Forwarding. “There is also no way to get around an accident because the roads are too narrow. The whole network has deteriorated in a period of three weeks from usable to impassable. It is taking so long, and that’s without the clearing side.” Poverty is changing the rules with a new ‘requirement’ to enter the country on virtually every trip, according to Ronel Coetzee. “Never mind the roads; it’s the clearing that takes so long,” she said. “It’s new paperwork and a new excuse every time. If you don’t pay their penalties, the trucks don’t move. And once we get all the new documentation in line to avoid the penalty, they come up with something new.” “The Chinese have gone in there to trade oil for infrastructure,” says Gerrie Coetzee. “After these latest rains, all their work is now gone. The situation is the worst I have seen in 15 years of going into Angola.”