Swazi firm launches SA - Harare service

JAMES HALL MBABANE - Zimbabwe is not a forbidden destination for one Swazi transport firm, Speedy Overborder, whose Gauteng office has launched a new SA-Harare connection. “Zimbabwe is very volatile, but the few companies that are there are doing very well,” Willie Stuart, Speedy Overborder CEO, told FTW. DHL was searching unsuccessfully for some time for an SA partner, and found its mate in Speedy Overborder. Perhaps because, as Stuart says, “it seems everyone else is running away from Harare,” the launch of the new courier service that links the two major southern African capitals was the hottest ticket in town. The diplomatic corps and the captains of industry clamoured for tickets to the black-tie affair that featured London opera singers and flowing champagne. Every Thursday a truck leaves Gauteng, offloading in Harare the following Tuesday. “Other firms take goods, but won’t give arrival times. You ask when your goods will arrive, and they say they’re waiting for the truck to fill up. We guarantee it will leave on schedule, whether the truck is full or there is only one box,” Stuart said. Stuart, who began his business delivering goods from the boot of his private car, is always up for a challenge, which impressed DHL. He is undaunted by the crisis atmosphere that pervades Zimbabwe. “There’s an old English expression, ‘Where there’s muck, there’s money.’ If there were no problems, I’d have no business. Every Tom, Dick and Harry would put goods on a bakkie if the transport business didn’t have challenges,” Stuart said.