29 Aug 2017

Construction of a coordinated transport system in Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is vital for economic growth as it will provide swift linkages to internal markets and promote economic emancipation.

This was said by South Africa Cross Border Road Transport Agency senior research specialist on corridor assessment and strategic analysis, Mr Crynos Mutendera during Trans Kalahari Corridor (TKC) stakeholder engagement workshop in Gaborone recently under the theme 'Opening Trade between Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.'

Mr Mutendera said the reason why Africa was lagging behind in industrialisation is that it was not linked within the continent on account of poor road infrastructure and disjointed policies.

He said the time had come for Africa, which has a population of about 1.2 billion, to become a player in the world markets by first improving its regional intra trade.

Thus, he said construction of a well-coordinated transport system that would link up communities and countries within the region would facilitate markets where African people would effectively trade among themselves and improve SADC Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is currently at US $ 5.5 billion.

He noted that currently intra trade within the region was only 0.3 per cent, which translates to about US$33 billion. 

That, he said, could be improved by devising and strategically implementing a well-oiled transportation system that would facilitate movement of people, goods and services.

Further, he said Africa had successfully managed to attain political emancipation, but the region did not have economic emancipation.

He said more needed to be done to facilitate and encourage trade within the region at a higher policy level.

He cited the example of Botswana Meat Commission beef export to Europe, which he said was exported back to Africa to counties such as South Africa in other forms.

“Since South Africa is next to Botswana, why do South Africans have to eat Botswana beef coming all the way from Europe yet Botswana is nearby?” he questioned.

Moreover, Mr Mutendera said that there was need for transport logistics within the region to be harmonised and be made more efficient to enable countries to trade efficiently.

He added that it was easier and cheaper to move goods by sea and so countries look for where they can get commodities cost effectively.

“When the cost of moving a commodity is costly they will move to other places, thus moving of goods must be made as cost effective as possible to enable intra trade,” he said.

Transport planning and policy director in the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Mr Orapeleng Mosigi said that efficient transport links within the region could be used to stop the impending trade barriers.

To that end, he said, government working with other countries intended to change their landlocked status to become ‘land linked’ through a well collaborated regional transportation system.

He disclosed that Botswana recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the North South corridor, which comprised seven countries.

He said some of the goods coming from the North South corridor were destined to the TKC, hence improved transport connectivity to the sea coast.

Further, Mr Mosigi disclosed that Botswana was working to position itself to ensure seamless movement of goods through construction of Kazungula and the Mohembo Bridge.

“We are constructing another bridge, Mohembo, and goods will now be transported into Angola, Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo with ease,” he said.

He noted that another border area worth undergoing development was the Martins Drift.

“When one goes to that border it’s a nightmare. They only have one bridge,” he noted.

He stated that when the TKC was conceived 14 years ago, the three countries wanted to facilitate transit and trade growth along the corridor.

“We want to develop it so that it can be a smart corridor, reliable, safe and secure. We have been conducting operations to root out elements that may make it inefficient,” he said.

Further, he said the ministry was working on an Integrated Transport Policy that would ensure that a lot of issues surrounding transport were addressed.  

He said in the past they relied on national development plans without making any assessments on all transport forms and networks.

For his part, TKC secretariat marketing and business development specialist,  Mr Zunaid Pochee said TKC was a tripartite trans-boundary corridor that was established with a political and economic vision to pursue or contribute towards deeper regional integration programmes of SADC, SACU and NEPAD.

He said the corridor was a road network spanning approximately 1 900 kilometres across the territories of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

It starts in the Gauteng Province in South Africa and continues through Rustenburg and Zeerust in the North-West Province, through Lobatse and Kang in Botswana, the Mamuno and Trans Kalahari Border Posts, through Gobabis, Windhoek and Okahandja in Namibia and right through to the Port of Walvis Bay.

He said so far since its inception they managed to harmonise legislations and procedures to make it easier to travel between the three countries.

To date, he said, they have been able to get countries to sign ‘One Stop Border’ bill, which Namibia signed about a month ago.

“We have also been able to harmonise customs procedures of the two countries,” he said, adding the many-paged document which truck drivers used in the past has been reduced to one page.

Further, he said, currently border posts do not open throughout the day, which may affect timely delivery of goods, “We are working to have boarders open for 24 hours,” he said.

Moreover Mr Pochee said the challenge of roaming animals along the TKC has been addressed. He added that the area was fenced and fatalities along the corridor have been reduced.

He said the target was to increase movement of goods along the corridor to have 22 trucks moving along the corridor per hour, which translates to about 196 416 per annum.

For his part, Ministry of Land Management Water and Sanitation Services deputy board secretary for Ghanzi Land Board, Mr Dothodza Tabengwa noted that some land restrictions were imposed along the TKC since its inception.

Such restrictions he said, included land allocations along the corridor done 15km away from the road such as Kang, Sekoma, Charleshill, Mamuno, Kacgae, Kokong, Karakubis, Mabutsane, Jwaneng and Kanye.

However, he said the TKC nodal points were sparsely populated with low populations needed to be developed further to effectively meet the needs of the corridor. ENDS