Customs personnel working for the South African Revenue Service (Sars) are doing whatever they can to speed up cargo processing at the Kopfontein Border Post on the R49, a cross-border route that has become a choke point of supply ever since the loss of the Groblersbrug transit further north.
With no indication when the flood-damaged crossing for in-transit cargo to the Copperbelt might re-open, Kopfontein remains a massive headache and over-border hauliers are accusing the likes of Sars of lacking urgency in this time of crisis.
But this is not so, a clearing agent dealing with Groblersbrug has said.
In a frank conversation with Freight News, the agent said: “Sars is doing whatever it can to improve our north-west borders with Botswana.”
Asked to go on the record, the agent said rather not, perhaps because of being a little less flattering about the Border Management Authority (BMA), the Department of Public Works and Eskom, than about Sars.
In the interest of capturing the agent’s frustration with the above-mentioned government entities, Freight News is posting the conversation verbatim.
“Kopfontein (an express logistics border for Gaborone) is simply not built for seeing the kind of volumes it’s currently seeing.
“Over the years, we have seen that when the Limpopo (river) floods, Groblersbrug shuts down because water comes into the customs area, and it becomes a groot gemors (big mess). That’s not a Sars issue, it’s an Eskom issue.
“You would imagine that various government departments responsible for running the border would by now have learned from past experiences, but they haven’t. There are no sandbags to try and hold the river back, no nothing. No changes have been made, so when the river comes down the border floods and we’ve seen it so many times.
“I believe Eskom is going to be moving that funny little orange thing (power facility) that always seems to be half-full of water. Other than that we don’t know what they’re doing to make sure that the border won’t flood every time the rain comes down.
“Groblersbrug also ends up becoming a Beitbridge. If that border, Zimbabwe and Zimborders (concession company) were better, 90% of the traffic (heading to Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) would be using the North-South Corridor (through Zimbabwe).
“That corridor was anyway built to handle the kind of traffic we’re seeing going to Groblersbrug, but because of duties and other tariffs payable in Zimbabwe, transporters prefer to drive through Botswana.
“What’s more is that Zimborders charge an arm and a leg. The costs are huge and transporters are also paying transport coupons to VID (Vehicle Inspection Depots) that are supposed to go to the upkeep of roads. When they do actually work on the roads in Zim it creates more of a mess than fixing things.
“So ja, we worry about Beitbridge because the border is quiet, even with all this nonsense we’re seeing at our north-west borders.”
FREIGHT NEWS: Surely more should be done to speed up cargo processing at borders like Kopfontein.
“The customs guys at those three borders (Skilpadshek and Ramatlabama being the other two) are really giving it their all with what they have.”
FREIGHT NEWS: Should more staff not be immediately deployed?
“You have to remember that when they do staffing at these borders they do it for the numbers that are on record, not for the sudden influx of the gazillion trucks that have stopped using Beitbridge and now can’t use Groblersbrug.
“Yes, they aren’t moving 500 trucks a day but our land borders weren’t built for that.”
FREIGHT NEWS: Should we not revert to manual processing when digital systems collapse?
“You have to remember that big concerns like multi-chain retailers supplying Botswana can’t all of a sudden go back to paper. The same applies to Sars. Risk is a major issue and, at some point, all the manual entries will have to be recaptured on the system. Everything that’s entered manually will have to be digitally processed. Manual processing of cargo will ultimately amount to double entries.
“I think what is frustrating for transporters and stakeholders is that there isn’t contingency measures by the likes of Eskom. They might have generators, but the maintenance of these (and other border) facilities doesn’t fall with Sars. It falls with the BMA and Public Works.
“If you get one government department (responsible for running a border) not doing its job, it affects everyone. When connectivity at Kopfontein fails (as it did on Thursday morning), it’s not a Sars issue.
“We’ve seen it so many times at how many of our borders. Loss of power means loss of connectivity, which means processing becomes a problem. All our land borders are situated in rural areas, so when the sh*t hits the fan there’s very little we can do. We are hamstrung by the areas we work in. We saw it in 2023 with all the load shedding. Because borders like Beitbridge and Groblersbrug are situated in the middle of nowhere, the loss of internet connectivity became a serious setback for customs processes.
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and is nowhere more applicable than here in Africa,” said the agent quoting a Robert Burns poem.
FREIGHT NEWS: Isn’t it time to move Groblersbrug away from the river?
“You don’t understand. You can have your customs area 10 kilometres away from the actual border, but you still need officials at the point where trucks physically leave one country and enter another. At the moment there’s nothing there (at Groblersbrug) – no toilets, no water.
“But there’s a bigger problem: what we need to ask ourselves is how far are government entities allowed to move outside the box? If you said to Beyers (Theron, responsible for Customs at Sars), ‘rig me a quick office in Ellisras’ (Lephahale), he would do so in an hour or two. But it doesn’t come down to one department. It would also involve the BMA, the SA Police Service and simple things like ensuring people have access to ablutions. At the moment we don’t have that.
FREIGHT NEWS: What’s the long-term solution for Groblersbrug?
“We need facilities at the border to be secured against flooding. It’s not that easy but you would imagine Public Works could figure it out. Without water and amenities at the border we can’t expect people to work there.
“As for customs processes, we have advised public sector stakeholders that we should figure out how to run a clearance corridor for Groblersbrug. But to ensure that there’s no deviation between the point where trucks and their loads are released and the border itself, is another thing altogether. How do you monitor it? It can be done though. We’ve seen it overseas.”
