SA Shippers’ Council sets new collaborative path

In line with its strategy to create a more effective and relevant organisation, the South African Shippers' Council (SASC) is set to change its name. The new name, brand and strategy will be formally launched in Johannesburg on March 24. “Substantial work has been undertaken in the past few months to revisit the future path the council ought to take to become more effective and relevant. We worked through the archives as well as founding statements and also invested time in looking at shipper and logistics councils all over the world to determine best practice,” said CEO Brenda Horne Ferreira. “What we found was that we needed to take a far more collaborative approach. The public and private sectors have to work more closely together,” she said. Horne Ferreira said it was also clear that the organisation needed to expand into southern Africa and would in fact have far wider representation in future – hence the need for a new name, but also a new model of operation. Under its new name, SASC will become a fulltime secretariat with a permanent office in Gauteng. She said this would address issues around members experiencing a reduced value proposition from their council and allow for the establishment of an innovative, collaborative public private partnership that would strengthen the southern African supply chain, allowing it to be far more globally competitive.