South African Business 2024

OVERVIEW
Transport and logistics
A regional airport could become an international hub.
SECTOR INSIGHT
The City of Cape Town
wants to revive rail.
There are plans to make more use of Hoedspruit Airport, the
airport that is most often associated with the Orpen Gate of
the Kruger National Park. In 2022, 61 000 of the people who
passed through Hoedspruit were European tourists but there
is potential to increase this traffic substantially. CemAir offers flights
to Johannesburg and Cape Town and Airlink connects to destinations
such as the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Maun in Botswana and
Vilanculo in Mozambique. The Limpopo Department of Transport
and Community Safety is working on a strategy to develop the
airport to further boost the tourism sector.
The Polokwane International Airport (PIA) is wholly owned
by the provincial government and run by the Gateway Airports
Authority Ltd (GAAL), an agency of the Department and Transport.
It has the potential to be an important regional cargo airport.
In the Western Cape, the administrations in charge of the City of
Cape Town and the province have plans to better coordinate transport.
The City of Cape Town conducted a feasibility study in 2022 on taking
over the management of passenger rail services from PRASA. The city
wants to have a fully-integrated system, which would include rail.
In 2022 the city’s Urban Mobility Directorate published
an updated Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan
(CITP), outlining the strategies and plans for improving the
transport environment in the metropole for five years to
2028. The Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA),
located within the municipality, is responsible for planning,
costing, contracting, regulating, monitoring, evaluating,
communicating, managing and maintaining the City of Cape
Town’s transport infrastructure, systems, operations, facilities
and network. The provincial government is following the city’s
ONLINE RESOURCES
African Rail Infrastructure Association (ARIA): www.aria.org.za
Airlines Association of Southern Africa: www.aasa.za.net
South African Heavy Haul Association: www.saheavyhaul.co.za
lead with the establishment
of a Mobility Department.
Large amounts of money
are to be spent on various
forms of public transport in
the short term. Investments
in rapid transit systems in the
big metropolitan areas are
being followed by cities such
as Polokwane and Rustenburg.
In Limpopo’s provincial capital
of Polokwane, operations
of the Leeto La Polokwane
public transport system were
launched in 2021.
The South African
Department of Transport
has several agencies and
businesses reporting to it.
Among them are Air
Traffic and Navigation Services
Company, Airports Company
South Africa (ACSA), National
Transport Information System,
Road Accident Fund, South
African Civil Aviation Authority,
South African Maritime Safety
Authority (SAMSA), South
African National Roads Agency
Limited (SANRAL) and Passenger
Rail Agency of SA (PRASA).
South Africa has 22 000km
of railway lines and 747 000km
of roads, 325 019 heavy-load
vehicles and the road freight
industry employs 65 000 drivers.
There are 135 licensed airports
in the country, 10 of which have
international status. ■
SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2024
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PHOTO: Airlink