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The national logistics crisis is South Africa's own 'inconvenient truth'.
That's the view of the CEO of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders, Dr Juanita Maree, who was reflecting on the crisis at the country's ports among other issues.
In a statement on Tuesday, Dr Maree described national logistics as a sector of transcendental importance to the national economy, but which experienced watershed moments this year.
She said the logistics crisis intensified in the 3rd and 4th quarters, when capacity issues at all key ports reached crisis point leading to severe backlogs of freight and costly delays.
The impact was felt across the complete supply chain.
Maree said in the main, the impacts were due to high inefficiencies and infrastructural collapse.
She said the full extent of the position must be fully understood, while it's also important to know that the issues are being addressed by the government and the private sector as a matter of national importance of the highest priority.
"Over the past two weeks, leaders from across the logistics, supply chain, and transport sectors have supplied exhaustive detail of the situation to business and the nation, generating wide media coverage.
"The message from Industry highlighted the issues, while at the same time underscoring solutions which are, by and large matters covered in the logistics roadmap to recovery and the work of the National Logistics Crisis Committee (NLCC)".
Maree said this is all work in progress, thanks to the collective focus, adding that it was no secret that fixing the fundamental issues requires time and significant resources.
"The reality is that the issues are now with us and impact indiscriminately all sectors of the economy; the people of South Africa, other African countries, regional economies, and indeed our international partners are all affected. This conversation must continue but it must be accompanied by immediate action.
"While the knock-on impact of the situation cannot be underestimated, I am greatly encouraged by the stage we have reached; the open conversation has widened the collaboration; great courage and determination have been apparent across all the platforms", said Dr Maree.
Meanwhile, the Road Freight Association said The Road Freight Association the situation at the country's ports did not happen overnight.
CEO, Gavin Reilly, says the deterioration of the ports and rail has been a slow, continued process over at least ten years, with Transnet management fully aware of the challenges.
He says nothing was done to counter this, nor were any efforts made to either reverse or halt the decline.
Reilly says the executives, management, and Ministers who have ''led" the Department of Public Enterprises and the various subsidiaries of Transnet are the ones to blame.
He says, however, that the Road Freight Association is involved in talks about the challenges facing logistics in general, and road freight in particular.
