PART I: Transport and Logistics Perspective
The SADC region is particularly vulnerable to these dynamics as transport and logistics are
also at the center of regional trade and economic integration. Across the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), this system is expected to underpin industrialisation,
value chain development under both provisions of the SADC Trade Protocol and the African
Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). However, long-term regional cooperation and
infrastructure planning have not improved the fact that moving goods across SADC from one
end of the region to another is slow, costly and fragmented. It is increasingly hard to overlook
this contradiction.
SADC is well located with major ports Walvis Bay, Durban and Beira and extensive road and
rail networks, as well as recognised corridors such as the North–South Corridor and Walvis
Bay Corridor Group. But not all these advantages have made regional connectivity seamless.
Furthermore, higher transport costs, extended border delays, insufficient intermodal
integration, and unmet regulatory requirements prevent regional trade efficiencies among
these operators (SADC, 2012; World Bank, 2020). Although gaps in infrastructure are often
identified as the central constraint, the deeper reason is the fact that transport and logistics
systems operate from a fragmented institutional and regulatory context. This reality is
acknowledged in regional master plans, although implementation is patchy.
Southern Africa’s problem, as presented in my article posted in 2023, of the untapped
logistics value from the Zambezi Region, is not a loss of opportunity, but a lack of
transformation of geographic advantage into aligned logistics systems for trade and
development (Liswani, 2023). The majority of freight movement in SADC is by road transport,
which makes up over 70% of regional cargo. Rail, as an inexpensive and environmentally
friendly alternative that is still not fully utilised, faces both long existing infrastructure
problems and competing transport requirements as well as a lack of rolling stock and poor
cross-border collaboration. Despite the evident acknowledgement established within
regional logistics master plans with respect to modal balance and asset management,
implementation remains structurally stalled.