Multi-modal transport systems key to SADC’s transformation

Lazarus Sauti

Multimodal transport – whereby roads, railways, airlines, and shipping operate in harmony – can contribute significantly to the development of countries within and across the Southern African development Community (SADC).

Its provision constitutes necessary preconditions for economic growth as multi-modal transport systems facilitate the creation of a single economic space that would lead to free movement of goods and persons, to borrow the words of Hon. Dr. Obert M. Mpofu, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development.

“The development of multi-modal transport systems is critical for economic transformation not only in Zimbabwe, but in the SADC region as it promotes the robust and dynamic industrial and enterprise sectors that the region relies on,” he notes, adding that the robust and dynamic sectors include tourism, mining and agriculture.

Michael A. Luguje, specialist in ports management, chips in: “Where transport networks are well integrated nationally, regionally or globally, they provide a good opportunity for multi-modal transportation, and efforts at integration cover various areas including regulatory, monetary, communication and information technology infrastructure, transportation infrastructure as well as trade facilitation.

“Integration connotes unification, harmonisation of all relevant efforts with the aim to forge stronger force and synergy to achieve what could have been impossible or difficult to achieve individually.”

In SADC, regrettably, integration is not the rule. As a result, the regional bloc is suffering socio-economically.

“The lack of integration has halted the development of agriculture, industry and trade as has thus, affected the ability of regional countries to effectively and jointly utilise their abundant mineral resources,” says Director of Transport Management Division in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Allowance Sango.

Vivien Foster and Cecilia Briceño-Garmendia, in the book “Africa’s Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation”, blamed corrupt customs administration and restrictions on entry into transport markets as hindrances to the development of multi-modal transport systems not only in SADC but in other African countries.

“These and other impediments delay freight, raise the costs of moving international freight, and compromise the logistical systems on which global trade depends,” they noted.

Therefore, and in line with the African Union’s (AU) Agenda 2063, governments in SADC countries must embrace the concept of multi-modal transport systems to transform the lives of people in the region.”

Agenda 2063, a plan for Africa’s structural transformation, provides that efficient transport and communications infrastructure and services are a vital prerequisite for Africa’s development and integration.

It also states that by 2063, the necessary infrastructure (quality and size) should be in place to support Africa’s accelerated growth, technological transformation, trade and development. The infrastructure should take in high-speed railway networks, roads, shipping lines, sea and air transport, as well as well-developed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and digital economy.

Further and in sync with the vision of the SADC Protocol on Transport, Communications and Meteorology which seeks to ensure the development of a safe, sustainable, efficient and effective road transport system in support of social-economic growth and development and ultimately poverty alleviation, member states must, thus, liberalise their transportation market.

They, together with critical stakeholders as well as generous development partners, must do this simply by reforming trucking regulation to promote competition and re-engineering the transit system to simplify documentation requirements.

The creation of one-stop border posts to avoid duplication of procedures, automation of customs to reduce direct contact with officials, privatisation of port management to reduce corruption, and the establishment of inland clearance centers or dry ports to anticipate clearance procedures are also some notable solutions.

More so, to develop systematic transport networks along the borders in cooperation with neighboring countries so as to promote and accommodate trade and investment and tourism activities, expertise transfer on how to sustainably manage national and regional transport networks is highly required. Consequently, governments and private organisations must support technology transfer if the region is to effectively embrace multi-modal transport systems.

Sango, however, warns that landlocked countries in the SADC region need to be connected.

“Special development needs of landlocked and transit SADC countries such as Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe need to be taken into account while establishing sustainable transit transport systems,” he advices.

Honestly, for transport to play its role and have an effective impact on the integration of the SADC region, there is need for multi-modal transport systems.

SADC countries, therefore, must support the expansion of sustainable development systems – including energy efficient multi-modal transport systems on top of notable public mass transportation systems – to achieve better integration of economies as well as to improve social equity, health, resilience of cities, urban-rural linkages and productivity of rural areas.