We started noticing trucking companies as well as bus companies relocating to Botswana and South Africa due to their stable business policies. For my first 10 years in South Africa from 2007 to 2017 I did mainly commercial insurance claims and I found out that many Zimbabweans own small South African registered businesses operating a few trucks. Some Zimbabweans based overseas bought trucks and set-up trucking businesses in South Africa. They transport goods mainly between South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia & DRC. There are press reports that Barloworld Logistics which owns companies such as Avis Car hire and Manline Freight is restructuring, which means leaner small companies will buy their current fleet and fill the gap.
Being a cross border truck driver is not a 9am to 5pm job, it is mostly a 24 hours, 7 days a week job, it is a tough job, you can spend up to 4 days trying to cross a border. Truck drivers confess that driving into countries such as DRC is very challenging. Given the level of de-industrialization in many SADC countries, citizens in those countries rely on those trucks to ferry goods from South Africa. This benefits South Africa in that its companies get a market for their products thereby boosting manufacturing capacity and employment and South African banks gets huge inflows of foreign currency making sure South Africa realises a positive balance of payment support that helps to stabilize the Rand. South African financial sector including insurance companies and banks benefit immensely from this. Current figures shows that around 1 000 trucks cross Beitbridge everyday during this lockdown period. On the return journey to South Africa trucks can carry unprocessed tobacco and minerals such as copper, platinum ore and chrome to Durban harbour. SA risks losing out to Port of Beira, Walvis Bay, Dar El Salaam, Luanda etc more so that the massive Kazungula bridge at the border of Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe over Zambezi river is nearing completion cutting the distance to Walvis Bay and Luanda.
Some years ago there was a crippling strike at the Durban harbour that lasted many weeks and the then Botswana President complained bitterly about this. I find it not surprising that the only road that was resurfaced by Group Five in Zimbabwe is the one from Plumtree to Mutare towards Port of Beira via Harare and Bulawayo. I suspect Botswana helped to finance that project. The distance from Port of Beira to Zimbabwe is less than 300kms. That route won’t be affected by the instability in Mozambique, I remember in the 80s during Mozambique civil war, Zimbabwean soldiers successfully secured the Beira Corridor route. If the violence continues unabated South Africa will lose big time as Botswana will mostly avoid South Africa. Trucks are movable property, they can move borders overnight and be registered in neighbouring countries. Eswatini may start utilizing Port of Maputo.
Given that most of the minerals coming from DRC, Zambia and Zimbabwe going via port of Durban are going to China. If Mozambique negotiates with China to upgrade Port of Beira, I see countries such as DRC, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe shifting their exports and imports to the nearby Port of Beira. As we speak right now Zambia and Zimbabwe source their petroleum products almost exclusively from Beira via Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe the government has made it mandatory for platinum companies to start processing platinum ore which means there won’t be any need to transport the mineral via South Africa which already has a huge theft risk as compared to other SADC countries.
South Africa must wake-up and realise that rule of law means also maintaining law and order, there is no point in the trucking industry getting a high court order to interdict the illegal strike but then the police is powerless to stop the illegal strike and fail to protect property from vandalism. No country is an island, the violent strike will erode South Africa’s competitive advantage. It is absurd that thugs want to stop thousands of foreign workers with the requisite permits from working in South Africa.
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