An export business is as good as its logistics, which is invariably a combination of public- and private-sector involvement. Government should not tolerate the decimation of foreign exchange flow, and the more local businesses export, the more they pay in tax, which is why collaboration by all South Africans to improve rail and port logistics is a no-brainer. Yet we are taking excessively long to get out of the woods.
Full communication is important in situations such as loss of national income through loss of national management, which is why the doors of Transnet should be opened to the media to report on the collaborative public-private meetings that are taking place.
The closed-door approach is failing to sufficiently reveal where the real problem lies – and if the decision is that the doors must remain closed, then those privy to what is going on should exercise zero tolerance for poor rail and port performances in view of the huge reliance of every single South African on the money that export logistics brings into a country’s coffers.