NA Market South Africa
Interest in the success of the South African economy is not restricted to that country alone. A strong South Africa can also benefit African development as a whole, reports Neil Ford.
South Africa in Africa
President Jacob Zuma. His country is now a major player in Africa
and gas fields in Mozambique all benefit from South African investment, while the country’s political influence helps to heal the political wounds of the past. Mozambique has benefitted most di-
P
retoria promotes itself as a repre- sentative of the continent, cam- paigning for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and pledging to promote
African interests in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) group of states. Yet South Africa does not have anything like the political or economic might of the other four BRICS states, so how great a role can it really have in the continent as a whole? Te answer appears to vary according to
the region of Africa in question. In South- ern Africa, Pretoria plays a massive role across the cultural, political and economic spheres. Te government of South Africa is particularly keen to undo the harm that was inflicted on the Frontline States during the apartheid era and is supporting economic growth across the wider Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Where once it was a force for destruc-
tion, it is now at least trying to position itself as a force for good. Through SADC and the associated
Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), South Africa is promoting greater trade within the region, while South African companies take advantage of the opportunities on offer to invest in neighbouring states. Diamond mines in Botswana, hotels in Namibia,
rectly from its proximity to South Africa and the twin ports of Maputo and Matola are becoming increasingly popular entrepôts for international trade. Tey are located closer to South Africa’s industrial heartland around Johannesburg than South Africa’s established ports of Durban and Richards Bay Coal Terminal. Under the management of the logistics
company, Grindrod, Maputo handled 8.7 million tonnes of cargo, including alumin- ium, coal, fuel and grain, in 2010. Te South African firm hopes to increase
this to 12 million tonnes a year in 2011, 26 million tonnes by 2015, and 48 million tonnes by 2030 by positioning Maputo as a gateway for South Africa. Growing demand has already prompted
massive investment in dredging the har- bour entrance channel, allowing access for Panamax-sized vessels. With the gas, power, tourist and steel
sectors also benefitting from relationship with South Africa, Mozambique looks set to continue enjoying the high levels of eco- nomic growth that have been recorded over the past two decades. South Africa currently plays far less of
a role in the rest of Africa. East, West and North Africa all have their own regional superpowers and currently trade relatively little with the continent’s biggest economy. Tis is partly a function of distance
and of poor Pan-African transport links but South African companies are in the vanguard of those firms that are benefit- ting from steadily rising levels of inter-
nal African trade. Sturrock Shipping and Conceptum Logistics recently announced the creation of a new joint venture to ex- pand their transport operations across the entire African continent. Sturrock already operates in Angola, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Sudan and Tanzania, and plans to launch new services in five new markets in the short term, mainly in oil rich Central Africa. Non-African logistics companies, such
as Bolloré, are rapidly developing Pan- African operations, so South African com- petitors need to act now if they are not to miss out. Te managing director of Sturrock Ship-
ping Andrew Sturrock, added: “Conceptum offers a degree of expertise and experience in a highly specialised area of operations that only a handful of global companies are able to provide. For Sturrock Shipping, the joint venture provides the perfect complement to the range of ship’s agency, clearing and forwarding, and general logistics services that we already offer.” Te telecoms firm, MTN, of South Af-
rica announced that it had increased the number of its subscribers across the conti- nent from 116 million in 2009 to 141 mil- lion last year. Phuthuma Nhleko, the firm’s outgoing
chief executive, commented: “Affordability is an issue. If we had to bring down cost of handsets and obviously reduce our costs as well and so on, it means that you can actually get more people onto the network who can afford to be on the network. So I’m very positive that there is still some very significant organic growth in these countries.” MTN Nigeria is investing $1bn in capital
projects in Nigeria alone during the cur- rent financial year. Such investment not only benefits the South African companies involved, but also the communities and markets within which they operate.
New African June 2011 | 75
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