OVERVIEW
Transport and logistics Achieving ambitious export goals will boost the logistics sector. SECTOR INSIGHT An African free trade agreement is certain to increase transport volumes.
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lans to expand exports in a variety of sectors will rest heavily on the transport and logistics sector being up to the task of handling increased volumes. A total of 82% of South Africa’s air cargo is transported through OR Tambo International Airport and Gauteng has several cargo and freight handling facilities well-equipped to deal with rail and road deliveries and despatches. A specific goal of the Provincial Government of Gauteng is to make the Transnet Tambo-Springs Logistics Gateway the biggest inland logistics hub and dry port in Africa by 2030. The Tambo-Springs Gateway near Katlehong is an inter-modal facility which can transfer containers from rail or road to storage facilities and ultimately to the customer. Existing freight rail lines run through the site and link it to the seaports of Durban, Cape Town and Ngqura (Port Elizabeth). The aim with this new facility is to improve efficiency. It is run by the Tambo Springs Development Company. The intention is to add to the port: • a logistics park (transportation, processing, manufacture, warehousing and distribution). • a business park with a retail element. • a residential component. • an agro-industrial section. At an Innovation in Transport Seminar held in 2019, the provincial government stressed the importance of digital competence (“smart mobility”) in the transport sector as ever-more complex transactions take place across international borders. This will only grow as the effect of the African Continental Trade Agreement (AfCTA), signed in 2019, comes into effect, allowing for greater and freer trade across the continent.
GAUTENG BUSINESS 2020/21
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The health of the transport and logistics networks of the province is key to any economic growth plans. The provincial government has identified logistics hubs, the road network, intermodal facilities, rolling stock, and buses and taxis as key components of the drive to transform, modernise and reindustrialise the regional economy. Road infrastructure projects are intended to bring in other major investments and connect new economic nodes such as the Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway, the planned new megacities ( Vaal River City and Lanseria), the new Special Economic Zones with current economic nodes and existing townships. In the short term, 18 major roads will be rehabilitated, upgraded and constructed, especially in Sedibeng and the West Rand. The concept of a Gauteng City Region is key to much of the planning for the area’s economic future. Infrastructure development is under way along corridors, each of which has a specific focus and it is instructive that each of them has a transport and/or logistics element.
