Botswana’s most important direct-access transit with South Africa is experiencing serious congestion after the Limpopo River and at least two other tributaries flooded at the beginning of March, causing the Groblersburg Border Post to close.
As a result, in-transit cargo heading from South Africa through Botswana to the Copperbelt is diverting to southern transits like Kopfontein, causing significant backlogging at a crossing used for express logistics into Gaborone.
Over the weekend, a traveller captured video footage of westbound trucks standing for kilometres on the R49 on South Africa’s side of the border, waiting to pass into Botswana.
On Tuesday morning, March 17, Kage Barnett of the Transit Assistance Bureau said although cargo processing at Groblersbrug had bounced back relatively quickly after the Limpopo burst its banks earlier this year, the current damage was far more extensive.
“They have to replace a lot of furniture and equipment. Everything needed for customs processing at Groblersbrug (GBR) has to be either repaired or replaced, and it’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” Barnett said.
He added that GBR officials had not indicated when the border might reopen and that the road freight industry should prepare for a long delay.
This was also confirmed by Mike Fitzmaurice, Mike Fitzmaurice, regional vice-president of the African Union’s Organisation for Transport and Logistics.
He said Groblersbrug would most likely be closed until the end of March.
Incessant rain across the Highveld escarpment also doesn’t bode well for cross-border transporters passing through or into Botswana.
Given the current queue of trucks at Kopfontein, it appears that operators are sending loads further south to the N4 transit into Botswana, spreading more congestion to South Africa’s Skilpadshek Border Post on the Trans-Kalahari Corridor (TKC).
No information was forthcoming about the situation at the TKC transit but it’s likely that transporters are avoiding the N4 at the Botswana border because of service delivery protests near Zeerust.
Impacted logistics on the TKC could further exacerbate bottlenecking at Kopfontein.
It has also emerged that long-distance carriers serving clients in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are reconsidering driving through Zimbabwe instead of Botswana.
However, duties and refundable in-transit charges persist, with overborder hauliers, especially fuel carriers, complaining of very little – if any – support by officials from the Zimbabwean Revenue Authority and South Africa’s Cross-border Road Transport Agency.
In a developing story related to regional logistics, a clearing agent responsible for in-transit processes from South Africa to the Copperbelt said it was ridiculous that there weren’t fall-back processes in place for Groblersbrug.
“To have digitised efficiencies is one thing, but what if everything goes down or physically washes away? We’ve seen it happen very often. Maybe it’s time to reconsider our over-reliance on computerised clearing by reintroducing manual flexibility into the system,” said the agent who didn’t want to be named.
“It causes serious disruption when a border like Groblersburg closes for traffic and no contingencies are in place.”
After the opening of the Kazungula Bridge across the Zambezi River in May 2021, TKC Secretariat leader Lesley Mpofu said it was concerning that there wasn’t enough vision to also upgrade Groblersburg.
He said whereas new infrastructure at Kazungula had effectively replaced the old river ferry system, the narrow bridge at Groblersbrug was an asynchronous impediment that could impact movement across the entire route towards the Copperbelt in Zambia and the DRC.
When the Limpopo flooded for the first time earlier this year, Fitzmaurice said it was important to revisit the idea of moving customs facilities further away from the border.
He said it was the only way to effectively deal with flooding so that once river levels subsided and the bridge was open again, cargo clearing could immediately resume.
