It’s been a busy time on the freight front, with ongoing issues around Beitbridge still buzzing, not like flies in a chaotic African customs office on a hot day, but with trucks flowing across the Limpopo with the kind of ease never expected of the turbulent and troublesome river crossing.
Never in a million years was it expected that the northbound queue, which had become somewhat of a standard feature at Musina, would shrink - but shrink it did.
Unsurprisingly, the interventions implemented to decongest the border became one of our best-read stories (https://tinyurl.com/u82aaxxw).
As did a tongue-in-cheek piece we posted relating to gripes about the toll to use expensive revamped border facilities that were commissioned at the beginning of the month (https://tinyurl.com/yxxs4ur9).
Still on the topic of our favourite border, a revelatory post about entrenched corruption at Beitbridge also drew a lot of traction (https://tinyurl.com/d5xt5pe5).
Grabbing attention too was the threat of a substantial increase in the price of the fuel (https://tinyurl.com/kaphyf4), along with Transnet’s decision to declare force majeure following an arson attack – or what seems to have been one – at the bulk terminal of the Port of Richards Bay (https://tinyurl.com/4p58vyja).
And it wasn’t the only mysterious ‘little’ blaze that brought some of Transnet’s operations to a standstill (https://tinyurl.com/2eszk4ef).
With Transnet having suffered more than three fires at its facilities in Richards Bay and Durban in the space of two weeks, investigations were launched to look into whom the guilty parties could be, if there were any.
Of course, it’s very unlikely that all three fires could have been spontaneous, as in just sommer.
Whatever the case may be, Transnet is still schtum about what happened.
Come on people, tell us!
Considering the cosy relationship you once had with Zuma’s Dubai tjommies, you can hardly expect us to believe you don’t know something that the public should know.
As for a closed-door meeting that was held about cargo vessels that keep bypassing the Port of Cape Town (https://tinyurl.com/4sf24zwx), which sadly has become a bit of a standard feature there - much like the Beitbridge queue used to personify logistics at Musina – we remain in the dark as to what transpired.
Not every well-read story though was about the same old suspects – Beitbridge congestion and Transnet finding itself in the crosshairs of presumed arsonists.
Freight News also looked into demurrage and detention from an American perspective (https://tinyurl.com/55rvvf5c), and a drone that can lift 200 kilograms (https://tinyurl.com/xhac5ths).
Catch some of these stories before they drop down the rung.
Have a good weekend!
