ALAN PEAT AFTER LOUD complaints by members of the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI) that the Komatipoort/Ressano Garcia border post is a constraint on the use of the corridor between Gauteng and Maputo in Mozambique, the Mpumalanga government expressed its support for the post to be open for 24-hours-a-day. William Lubisi, the MEC for economic development and planning, and Fish Mahlalela for roads and transport, told the MCLI at a recent workshop that they understood that the business potential of the corridor could only be fully explored when the critical transport issues were resolved. The 24-hour border post opening for all cargo imports and exports, they added, was one of these. And it looks like the message has got through to SA Revenue Service (SARS). Although she would not put any time-span to it, Varsha Singh of customs said that the 24-hour border post was one of SARS' current priorities – along with the introduction of speedier and more effective, single document border administrative procedures, and a one-stop border post. A second critical transport issue, said the MECs, was the completion of the railway concession between Ressano Garcia and Maputo. A speedy solution to this, according to Deirdre Strydom, Spoornet’s senior manager strategy division, was currently top priority for the railway operators on both sides of the border - Spoornet and CFM. Referring to the “run-through-trains” philosophy – meaning that, once loaded, cargo wagons are not “touched” again on their way to the destination export ports – Strydom said it would also be applied to railway operations on the Maputo corridor.
