Fanie Pretorius, chair person of the South African Shippers Council, tells Jane Bordenave how the organisation works to benefit its members and how broad collaboration can bring success.
The South African Shippers Council (SASC) is a not-for-profit trade organisation that represents cargo owners and affiliated companies in their supply chain. The council was formed in 1992 by a number of large cargo businesses in order to represent their interests and those of their supply chain, to government. Today, core members include big names such as Exxaro, Anglo American, ArcelorMittal, Xstrata and Afrisam and represent over 200 million tonnes of cargo. Currently the council has 17 members, with another three applications pending.
The main focus of the organisation is to lobby government on legislation that will have a significantly negative impact on its members’ businesses or those of their respective supply chains. As current chair person Fanie Pretorius explains, the council has made a number of successful representations to parliament over its 18-year history. “We work by ourselves or with organisations to canvas against bylaws and other legislation that we consider unworkable for the companies we represent. Most recently we successfully came together with the Freight Forwarders Association to oppose plans by the National Ports Authority to increase levies. Rather than the increase of 11 per cent put forward by the Authority, we successfully argued for an increase of only 4.5 per cent.”
Initially, the council was quite introspective, with the cargo owners and private businesses that made up the supply chain coming to decisions based on discussion among themselves. However, it was decided that the organisation needed to take a more integrated approach that looked at the industry as a whole. The port authorities and freight rail network in South Africa are all operated by Transnet, which is majority owned by the government in the form of the Department of Public Enterprises. It is an important part of the supply chain of all cargo companies; however until three years ago this vital component had been somewhat overlooked. “We realised that we needed greater collaboration in our work to get better results; and to do that, we needed to take a different view on our supply chain,”says Pretorius.
SASC decided to test the above with the public and in 2008 held a conference with the theme ‘Creation of a Collaboration Platform’. The then-minister of Public Enterprise, Alec Irwin, was a big supporter of the initiative and mandated SASC to get the collaborative platform up and running. “It’s designed to bring together cargo owners, supply chain service providers and government to see how we can increase efficiencies in the supply chain” explains Pretorius.
Once in place, the collaborative platform—designed to help the council interface better with government—threw up other considerations. “The question behind all of these collaborative efforts was always, ‘who are the people involved in our work?’” explains Pretorius. Having established a structure where members and government could interact freely, it was time to look again at who else should be included. “We went back to this very basic question and decided that the missing answer was ‘other trade associations’. So we started to approach various other organisations, such as the Consumer Group of South Africa, RailRoad Association and the Road Freight Association, and began discussing with them how we could move forward working together. We have found that a lot of people agree that collaboration is the best way forward and that we need to start working more closely.” The Consumer Goods Council SA, representing the consumer goods industry, sees major benefits and synergy in joining forces with SASC—the creation of a concerted approach.
But, he says, the big issue is getting government buy-in on the project. This was hampered by an election in 2009 that saw a change in government and the departure of Irwin, followed by a further change of minister in 2010. However things are coming back on track, with Pretorius expecting to meet with the new minister, Malusi Gigaba, in the coming months.
In order to accommodate this level of cooperation, SASC has developed two additional tiers of membership: Associate and Affiliate. Affiliate membership will be for service providers such as Transnet, while Associate members will consist of groups like the RailRoad Association or the MCLI. This strategy produces mutual benefits for all involved, says Pretorius. “The South African Freight Forwarders Association has joined us under the Associate Members scheme and the organisation has agreed to open up its membership to us as a reciprocal arrangement.” These arrangements mean that not only can the council be more effective in its role as a lobbying entity, but its members will also have a more global view of all the factors influencing their operations.
One of the major challenges currently faced by SASC members is the long-term lack of investment in port and rail infrastructure. “While over the last four or five years billions of rand have been invested in the rail network and, particularly, the ports, they are not running as well as they could be or should be,” says Pretorius. There are a few reasons for these problems, he says. “On the rail freight side, the rolling stock is very old and in need of replacement and the railways themselves need upgrading. Additionally, the theft of copper from overhead wires is a major issue.” However, regarding the ports, Pretorius sees a different problem: “With the exception of Durban, there is no competition in the ports—everything is state owned and operated. This can lead to inefficiencies and wastefulness; I really do think it is time to think about creating competition in the market, which will benefit everyone.”
Pretorius—due to relinquish his position as SASC’s chair person in a year’s time, although he will remain as a board member—has high hopes for the future of the organisation. “Over the next five years I would personally like to see all the councils and associations working together as one united front. I would like to see them working with government to reduce the supply chain process and to improve efficiencies, which will in turn reduce costs,” he says.
“I would also like to see a greater Affiliate membership, and for them to work alongside the cargo owners and support one another—currently there is still a ‘them’ and ‘us’ mentality, but in the future I would like it to just be ‘us’. Of course, the organisation will still represent the interests of the cargo owners above all else, but we need to move forward together in order to achieve results.”
