GABCON laments loss of business on SA route

Keikantse Lesemela | Thursday May 22, 2014 10:12

Minister Nonofo Molefhi (left) shown containers carrying imported vehicles by Gabcon Managing Director Modise Koofithile at Gabcon terminal PIC: Kagiso Onkatswitse

Speaking during the Transport and Communication minister Nonofo Molefhi’s visit to Gaborone Container Terminal (GABCON) on Monday, managing director, Modise Koofetlhile said unavailability of loading terminals for Botswana in the neighbouring countries affects their business.

“We are experiencing low business due to lack of proper facilities in the neighbouring countries. South Africa Revenue Services (SARS) can detain some of our goods in Mafikeng. There is no proper communication between Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) and SARS, therefore we are experiencing slow growth of business” he said.

Koofetlhile explained that containers moving by road from South African ports to Botswana results in damage to roads. GABCON has invested about P19 million in the past five years on container handling equipment.

In response, Molefhi said the government continues to explore other entry/exit points to reduce high costs on transporting goods.

He said the international rail management systems create bottlenecks. “We need to lobby the Ministry of Trade and Industry to assess these issues and find better ways of improving our transport services,” the minister said, adding that, “We need to find ways of diversifying our services and products because we are encountering a lot of challenges when importing and exporting our goods but the completion of Walvis Bay will help reduce expenses”.

Recently there have been issues surrounding the Walvis Bay port in Namibia with residents complaining that the environmental impact assessment was not carried out before construction.

“We have heard these reports but that is not true, that is a revenge tactic by the estate because we once planned to buy property in that country and later we turned down the offer so they do not want to see our project being successful. I can assure you that the government of Namibia is on our side and the president is waiting for our project to be successful”, said Molefhi.

Meanwhile, Botswana’s competitiveness on trade and logistics has declined as the recent World Bank survey ranked Botswana 120 out of 160 countries. In the 2012 survey, Botswana was ranked 68 out of 155 countries in trade logistics, with a score of 2.84, while in the 2014 survey Botswana scored 2.49.

The only sector that Botswana scored below hundred was in the logistics quality and competence in which it is ranked 99 out of 160 countries. In customs Botswana is ranked 112, infrastructure 125, internal shipment 129, tracking and tracing 127 and timeliness 103.

The World Bank report advices governments of the need to make long-term policy changes that improve and maintain the competitiveness of these services, consistent with fast-changing industry practices.

“So developing countries will have to not only consider the environmental footprint of their logistics, especially in trading with developed countries, but also revisit governance and operational models for environmentally friendly infrastructure and related transport modes, especially railways, that seem to perform poorly relative to those in the top performers,” the report states.