Putting 20 new 30-tonners on the road to transport steel and fertiliser to Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique and to bring back tobacco, cotton, wheat bran and the like is very encouraging given the current economic predictions of doom and gloom. “The market is looking all right and we deal mainly with South African companies so there are no problems with payments,” says Corné Pretorius, the managing director of Kodav which has put the additional new trucks on the road in association with Zimbabwean partner, Leopack Transport. Malawi is the company’s busiest destination and they are also involved in transporting aid relief, mainly food products. He notes that with the world economy as it is at the moment, it is difficult to predict the future but he believes a possible growth area for 2009 could be Zimbabwe. “If Zimbabwe comes right, trade and transport will explode,” he says. “The delays at border posts are also improving – over Christmas the delays were enormous, mostly at Beitbridge. While we usually cross within 12 hours, the past few weeks it took three to four days to cross. There was a hell of a lot of traffic and my suggestion is that they open another bridge; I can’t think what else they can do. “While the roads into Africa are not improving, there aren’t really any other problems. Last year the only incident in which a Kodav truck was involved was a minor one when a horse was bumped. We obviously do not drive at night as it is too dangerous,” Pretorius added.
