“These are all metals and minerals which are mined extensively throughout the region, so we are in a position to handle them for all southern African countries,” he explains. But therein lies the rub. It is at the mercy of the attitudes, taxation, duty and transport regimes of the different countries through which its access must pass. This all escalates cost and leads to delays which tend to justify a prejudice against using it. Coupled to this is the problem that Namibia and many of its neighbours, for which it can handle bulk cargo, are limited manufacturers of products, thus making it difficult to offset transport costs against revenue from well utilised services in both directions. To illustrate its vulnerability to the dictates of its neighbours, the chairman of the Namibian Road Carriers’ Association, Johan Cloete, points to the incompatibility of weighbridges on the Namibian and Botswanan borders in determining the load legality of traffic on the Trans Kalahari Corridor. “The result is delays for load shifting and of course fines for loads, something we find totally unacceptable because our weighbridge equipment is newer and more accurate. That has led to some transporters refusing to use some routes which impacts on our ability to develop our capacity and become attractive as an alternative to Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London and of course now even Maputo,” he explains. But they will not be held back in their drive to pursue greater market share from Gauteng and southern Africa because of the two corridors. To this end the Namibian Ports Authority (Namport), which was established to improve the infrastructure of Walvis Bay port to meet the challenges of the future, is assigning the sales and service manager, Johny Smith, to a Windhoek-based position to lure more freight from Johannesburg and Lusaka. Having been in on the development of the port and well informed about its future plans and capacities, Smith brings an intimate and almost passionate element to putting the port on the map.
