Juanita Maree, CEO of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders, says the government’s sovereignty argument is no justification for its failure to urge rival groups in Mozambique to end the crisis that has had a “devastating” impact on the region’s vital logistics network.
“There’s always that narrative of sovereignty and each country must sort out its own problems, but what people underestimate is the regional impact. If we want economic growth in South Africa, in Mozambique, in the region, then that must be our central driver. We cannot have a hands-off approach.”
Violent protests have raged in Mozambique since the elections in October, which opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane says were stolen from him.
While South Africa and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) applied the sovereignty principle, Maputo was burning, nearly 300 people died and supply chains that normally move 1,500 trucks and about 10 trains a day along the Maputo corridor stopped moving, Maree says. Fifteen working days were lost in December alone, costing almost R5bn in trade value.
Do we need to create awareness about the urgency of starting a serious dialogue? Absolutely.
— Juanita Maree, CEO of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders
About 200 of the trucks that move along the corridor are “general trucks” serving the informal small and medium business sector, which is critical to regional economies.
“It’s these small, informal businesses which keep local economies going.”
If this trade is disrupted it has a huge impact on the people of Mozambique and every other Sadc country, says Maree.
“You don’t understand how important Mozambique is to regional integration until you start analysing the data. It’s devastating to see, because now you need to regain the trust of international markets looking for alternative suppliers, you need to bring back sustainability, bring back the agility, rebuild the infrastructure that has been damaged.”
When all these ramifications are considered it is “devastating” that so little has been done to get meaningful dialogue going, she says.
“Do we want to run the country? No. Do we want to get involved in the country? No. Do we need to create awareness about the urgency of starting a serious dialogue? Absolutely. There’s no reason I can see why we couldn’t have been doing more to get this done.”
The view articulated by presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya that the crisis in Mozambique has nothing to do with South Africa, because it is a sovereign country, is dangerously short-sighted, she says.
“We’re not an island, and nor is Mozambique. We're part of an integrated region. We can’t turn a blind eye to what’s happening in Mozambique because people in Mozambique are coming to our shops, to our churches, to our schools, to our doctors.”
It is imperative for Sadc to realise its potential as a unified, regional trading bloc, she says. For this to happen South African foreign policy needs to reflect a better understanding of the interdependency of countries in the region, including, crucially, Mozambique.
It’s all very well talking about economic growth, but the key enabler is an integrated logistics network and supply chains that move. Without this enabler there will never be meaningful growth in the region.
“So we need to do whatever we can to protect the network from disruption. The moment that network is disrupted by the kind of crisis we’re seeing in Mozambique you stop growth throughout the region and also in South Africa, because you can’t trade.”
The dithering response of Sadc and its most powerful member state, South Africa, to the crisis in Mozambique suggests a failure to appreciate how interconnected every country in the region is and why a hands-off policy is not feasible.
“We need to start talking the language of integration. To say that to get growth you need to impact the logistics network. That means you need to integrate it with the different countries in the region and do whatever we can to protect it so that it is moving.
“Look at Dubai. They have no natural resources, they all work on supply chains. International supply chains and export supply chains. They understand that you need to protect your supply chains, because your supply chains must move.”
When the international supply chain stops moving, and you apply the sovereignty principle, it has a devastating impact on growth and jobs.
“It’s that message that we need to articulate and talk about, so that people understand that a logistics network is an enabler of growth.”
Does the government understand this?
“Well, our logistics network if you look at Transnet and our ports, does not enable trade, and that is why we are going backwards. That’s why people don’t regard this as a good place to come and invest in, because they don’t know if they’ll be able to move their product in and out of South Africa. There’s not that certainty.
“We’re tampering with a logistics network that is very fragile, and it will have huge unintended consequences if we don’t understand that.”
This is why South Africa as the strongest member state in Sadc “should have been agitating strongly for mediation of the crisis in Mozambique to happen as quickly as possible”.
The strategy of not getting involved in the affairs of a sovereign country might be acceptable if we were all different islands, says Maree. But being part of an integrated region it is economically ruinous.
“This is not about not wanting to interfere or get involved. It’s because we’re already so integrated that the urgency must be there to quickly find a mediation. If we don’t we won’t be able to grow together.
“We both want to grow, we want Sadc to grow. For us to grow we cannot have a hands-off approach. We need to understand the urgency for us to grow. That must be our central driver. Not ‘can I interfere or not interfere?’ We need to grow.”
She hopes the crisis will, albeit tragically late in the day, create awareness of the need to work “in a more mature way with each other to protect and extend our interrelated supply chains”.
“If we’re serious about growth and Mozambique is serious about growth, then all other things need to fall away. Then it’s not about sovereignty, it’s about growth and jobs, that’s our No 1 priority.
“All other things become secondary.”
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