The cyber attack on Transnet is creating massive delays and creating unreliability of the movement of goods across all modes of transport – with road freight bearing the brunt of the impact.
So says Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association (RFA), adding that gates to ports are closed, which means no trucks are moving in either direction. “This has immediate effect: the queues will get a lot longer, deliveries will be delayed and congestion will increase.”
On 22 July, Transnet advised its customers that it was experiencing a problem with some of its IT applications, and said it had to shut them down to identify the source of the problem.
Kelly says the RFA received confirmation from the parastatal on Friday that it had pinpointed the source of disruption to its IT systems, and that its technical teams were working around the clock to minimise the impact.
“The manual processes being used are also creating problems in terms of operations,” adds Kelly.
Road freight operators are already experiencing a huge backlog due to the recent civil unrest, and delays at the port will further exacerbate the problem. “Deliveries will become unreliable and unpredictable - adding further inefficiencies into the supply chain.”
Kelly believes the system needs to be adapted to ensure this sort of thing cannot happen in future. “In the meantime, an alternative system (even if manual) needs to be put in place to ensure freight keeps moving into and out of the ports.”
He says the implications for SA in the short- and long-term are serious.
“The past five years have seen our ports deteriorating further. In a World Bank report issued earlier this year, the Port of Durban was listed as one of the three worst ports in the world – out of 351 ports that were assessed. The effects of the cyber attack are going to result in further reputational damage to South Africa.”
This will threaten SA’s status as the ‘gateway to Africa’ for the import and export of goods, Kelly stresses.
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