Welcome to the 13th edition of the South African Business journal. First published in 2011, the publication has established itself as the premier business and investment guide to South Africa, supported by an e-book edition and website at www.southafricanbusiness.co.za.
A special feature in this journal focusses on the vital focus on infrastructure that is seizing the attention of the political and business leadership of South Africa. This is not the arena of endless talk shops. Rather, 160 CEOs of some of the country’s most influential companies are rolling up their sleeves and trying to make things work better. The article looks at steps being taken by a combination of the public and private sectors to beef up the country’s railways, ports and energy network. Crime is also under the spotlight. As this journal goes to print, South Africa will ascend to the presidency of the G20, a singular honour and an opportunity for the country to put its best foot forward. A brief overview of each of the country’s provinces is also provided.
South African Business is complemented by nine regional publications covering the business and investment environment in each of South Africa’s provinces. The e-book editions can be viewed online at www.globalafricanetwork.com. These unique titles are supported by a monthly business e-newsletter with a circulation of over 35 000. The Journal of Africa Business joined the Global African Network stable of publications as an annual in 2020 and is now published quarterly.
OVERVIEWTransport and
OVERVIEWTransport and logisticsE-commerce is reshaping the delivery landscape.SECTOR INSIGHTTransnet Freight Rail iscarrying more cargo.Electric delivery vehicles are being exported from Stellenbosch.Last-mile delivery solutions are being sought everywhere ase-commerce continues to grow. Some food retailers havebacked old-fashioned motorbikes and some are poweringtheir delivery trucks with electricity, but a Stellenbosch-basedcompany is shaking up the sector with an electric three-wheeler thatlooks a bit like a taxi you might expect to see on a busy street in Hanoi.MellowVans already has an impressive list of clients that includesDHL, DOCKR, OK Online, takealot, DPD and Spar. With a carryingcapacity of 2 500 litres and a range of about 130km on a singlecharge, the vehicle offers versatility and low running costs. Althoughthe company did not qualify to be part of the country’s automotiveindustry support programme because it does not produce insufficiently high volumes, export markets have opened up in Europe,Egypt and the Middle East.With the Post Office barely functioning, a rising trend in SouthAfrican has been the growth of parcel-delivery options. A plethora ofcompanies have sprung up to join the established DHL, DSV, PostNetand RAM Hand-to-Hand Couriers, which runs a fleet of 1 600 vehicles.These include Pargo, which has more than 4 000 pickup points aroundthe country, The Courier Guy and D2D. Some companies have takenspace in service stations to place dedicated lockers for the delivery andcollection of parcels.Transnet received a loan of R18.2-billion from the AfricanDevelopment Bank in the course of 2024, a signal from the world offinance that efforts to fix the state-owned logistics and freight companyare credible. The cost to fix Transnet Freight Rail has been estimatedat between R150-billion andR200-billion so there is still somedistance to go but a FreightLogistics Roadmap and otherplanning initiatives suggest thatthe state and the company areserious in their intent.The CEO of the African RailIndustry Association (ARIA),Mesela Nhlapo, has praisedthe utility for the “open andtransparent manner in which it ismanaging the rail-reform process”.A recovery plan was adopted inOctober 2023 and by November2024 freight volumes had grownby four-million tons with the aimof reaching 170Mt by the end ofthe 2023/24 financial year.Revitalising and gettingvalue out of under-used ordefunct branch lines, whichoften used to be the only wayof getting a commodity out ofa farming or mining district, willbe a key indicator of progress.The first round of attempting toget the private sector to investfloundered so getting it rightsecond time around will beespecially important.South Africa has 22 000kmof railway lines and 747 000kmof roads, 325 019 heavy-loadvehicles and the road freightindustry employs 65 000 drivers.There are 135 licensed airportsin the country, 10 of which haveinternational status. The SouthAfrican Department of TransportSOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 202584PHOTO: MellowVans
has several agencies and businesses reporting to it. Amongthem are Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company, AirportsCompany South Africa (ACSA), National Transport InformationSystem, Road Accident Fund, South African Civil AviationAuthority, South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA),South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) andPassenger Rail Agency of SA (PRASA).Planning is keyIn the Western Cape, the administrations in charge of theCity of Cape Town and the province have plans to bettercoordinate transport. The City of Cape Town has conducted afeasibility study on taking over the management of passengerrail services from PRASA. The city wants to have a fullyintegratedsystem, which would include rail. The city’s UrbanMobility Directorate published an updated ComprehensiveIntegrated Transport Plan (CITP), and has strategies and plansfor improving the transport environment in the metropole.The Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA),located within the municipality, is responsible for planning,costing, contracting, regulating, monitoring, evaluating,communicating, managing and maintaining the City of CapeTown’s transport infrastructure, systems, operations, facilitiesand network. The provincial government has followed thecity’s lead with the establishment of a Mobility Department.Large amounts of money are to be spent on various formsof public transport in the short term. Investments in rapid transitsystems in the big metropolitan areas such as Johannesburg arebeing followed by cities such as Polokwane and Rustenburg. InLimpopo’s provincial capital of Polokwane, operations of the LeetoLa Polokwane public transport system were launched in 2021while Johannesburg’s Rea Vaya has been running since 2009.There are plans to make more use of Hoedspruit Airport,the airport that is most often associated with the Orpen Gateof the Kruger National Park. In 2022, 61 000 of the peoplewho passed through Hoedspruit were European touristsbut there is potential to increase this traffic substantially.CemAir offers flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town andAirlink connects to destinations such as the Victoria Falls inZimbabwe, Maun in Botswana and Vilanculo in Mozambique.ONLINE RESOURCESAfrican Rail Infrastructure Association (ARIA): www.aria.org.zaAirlines Association of Southern Africa: www.aasa.za.netSouth African Heavy Haul Association: www.saheavyhaul.co.zaThe Limpopo Department of Transportand Community Safety is working ona strategy to develop the airport tofurther boost the tourism sector.ThePolokwane International Airport (PIA)is wholly owned by the provincialgovernment and run by the GatewayAirports Authority Ltd (GAAL), anagency of the Department of Transport.It has the potential to be an importantregional cargo airport. ■85 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2025
