The Southern Africa Development Community-SADC Cross Border Traders Association says Zambia is likely to experience the impact of the looting that was happening in South Africa – SA in the next two to three months
Association Executive Director Jacob Makambwe said the looting would disrupt the supply of goods in the country as Zambia mainly depends on South Africa and South African ports for import of various goods and most local cross border traders always get their goods from South Africa.
Makambwe said another impact of the looting would be an increase in the prices of goods coming from South Africa in the next few months, as the country would have to make sure they have enough before bringing it into the country.
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Makambwe said the supply of goods to supermarkets and chain stores will be erratic because most large scale supermarkets in Zambia are South African owned and are normally supplied by goods from South Africa.
He however said this is an opportunity for the private sector and local manufacturers to fill up the shelves of these stores adding that this will help the country retain and internalize its foreign exchange.
He has advised the local manufacturers and producers to take advantage of the situation and look at what products they can supply, as it is an opportunity for the local industries and processors to supply the chain stores, which usually stock South African products.
“You know that the South African government is now deploying more soldiers meaning that whoever would have imported goods, at the moment, it will be extremely difficult to verify which factories the goods are coming from or whether criminals have organised and gotten the truck and just want to come and sell in Zambia. There will be a lot of suspicion around and in order for it to be cleared, it could be difficult”, he said.
He stated that most of the fruits and vegetables in the country (whether we acknowledge this or not) come from South Africa and this disruption may cause a shortage or price increase of these products on the market.
“We do not actually know to what extent the damage has been done, in terms of trying to resuscitate the industries and also to restock their own country, it may take some time because things were gutted and billions of rands were lost in that demonstration”, he said.
Makambwe said the most affected people are the ones in areas where the demonstrations took place because they may have the money but do not know where to buy things because there is no stock and shops are closed.
He further said hunger is looming within the areas affected by the riot because most of the shops were gutted and things may not get back to normal very soon adding that the looters may end up losing everything because of the soldiers that have been deployed.
He noted that some of the goods imported from South Africa and partly Botswana include clothes, electrical appliances, television sets, motor spare parts, hardware, shoes, blankets and baby clothes. All these supplies to Zambia will be affected.
He also noted that the closure of borders has already affected cross border business, as there is little movement from people coming from Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa to buy goods from Zambia so the looting will affect the delivery of goods.
He said the supply of goods has been erratic as traders experience delay in receiving their goods, which sometimes take weeks and over a month.
