The festive migration: Transforming South African transport for a better future

THE great migration has begun.

- Bridgette Setshedi

South Africans and many of our country’s migrant workers will begin the great trek, as holiday makers head to the coast, the berg, the bush, and the rural hinterlands of places they call home. It is also the last-minute rush to move goods and cargo on time for the festive shopping and to stock up warehouses for the demand of a new year, when all economic and social beings and systems yawn out of the end of year festivities back to making South Africa work.With the attention it so deserves, the narrative around transportation and mobility at this time of the year, becomes about road safety due to the hundreds of lives lost due to road fatalities. The other focus becomes our congested land ports struggling to process outbound migrant workers and last-minute shipments. To its relief, rail is spared from the spotlight, and the airline industry only gets mentioned in case of some newsworthy mid-flight incident.

In simple terms - we are not talking about transport and development as we should be, yet the transformation of our society and general of evolution of “civilisation” has hinged on how it adapted to its environment to enable ease and safety in the movement of people and goods.

The urgency of alignment is clear - transport challenges stretch far beyond cost, efficiency, and safety.

South African transport sector stands at a crossroads. It is the country’s third largest emitting sector, but also one of the areas where climate action can most directly improve lives.