A Perfect Opportunity To Change The Transport Sector For The Better

摘要

The old adage “Never waste a goodcrisis” comes to mind as we viewthe upheaval the Southern Africantransport industry faces due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.Now is the time to reassess, andto evolve. The crisis, as crises do,has revealed the weaknesses in thetransport sector, globally, regionallyand nationally.For the sub-Saharan Africaregion the crisis has made starkthe importance of increasingharmonisation in legislation andinfrastructure. Already we in theregion face a real risk of insufficientfood supplies because of addedborder safety procedures, whilenecessary to protect lives, these aredelaying trucks at borders for upto four days. Contrast this with thefact that the these same challengescaused Europe’s Schengen region,comprising 26 countries to officiallyabolish border controls betweentheir mutual borders. This is whatharmonisation can do.