The South African
Association of Freight
Forwarders (Saaff) is
developing a database with
the North West University
that will provide statistics on
container inspections.
This is according to Saaff
customs director, Richard
Mallabone, who made the
announcement at a Freight
Forwarding and Logistics
Roundtable hosted by FNB
in Johannesburg last week.
Mallabone explained that
the country had never had
reliable container inspection
statistics that could be
presented to government.
“We’ve never been able to say
to them: You’ve stopped 5%
of shipments coming into
the country and of those,
Saaff develops container
inspection database
90% are getting released as
entered, for example.”
He added that Saaff
was looking to roll out the
database to all government
departments to show them
where obstacles existed.
“Unless we curtail and
manage our risk from a
government perspective
we’re going to stop trade
coming in and through
South Africa, because of
these obstacles.”
Mallabone said border
management companies
in South Africa currently
managed the stopping of
containers with manual
manifests, with all shipping
lines having to physically
provide manifest documents
to the police in Durban and
Johannesburg.
He explained that while
Sars used a technology
database, it wouldn’t share
it with the South African
Police Service (SAPS). “SAPS
either stops containers
based on the description
in the container or entirely
at random. The risk engine
is horribly broken because
that is not managing risk,”
he said.
Mallabone believes the
problem begins with the
Sars technology database,
because all other government
departments are not linked
into it. “That is an obstacle
to trade, whether into South
Africa, through South Africa
or over its borders.”
He said one only had to
look at delays at the country’s
border posts and the fraud in
the round-tripping of cargo
to see the consequences
of this. “We are unable,
through various government
departments, to link all
the technology together
and work as one entity that
improves the flow of cargo
through South Africa and
into sub-Saharan Africa.”
He said the SAPS was
stopping shipments on behalf
of the National Regulator of
Compulsory Specifications
(NRCS), which wanted
to ensure goods complied
with relevant regulations
and/or that importers had
the appropriate Letter of
Authority.
Mallabone relayed how
a large tyre importer with
30 containers on rail to
Gauteng had been stopped
by Durban SAPS, and 20 of
the containers returned to
Durban for examination.
“We should be doing
post audits of that type
of product. We shouldn’t
be physically stopping the
cargoes of well-known,
registered importers and
respected customers of Sars,”
he said.
