During a meeting with key exporters on Wednesday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa proposed the establishment of a national logistics crisis committee to urgently address the ailing performance of South Africa's ports and rail.

Ramaphosa hosted the virtual meeting with executives from key exporting economic sectors such as mining and minerals, the agricultural and forestry sectors and as well as the automotive and freight forwarding industry.

The sectors represent South Africa's largest exporters who are reliant on the country's road, rail and port infrastructure. 

Several meeting participants confirmed to News24 that the president said the logistics crisis is of "catastrophic proportions" and committed to rapid solutions through a new national logistics crisis committee. The committee structure is expected to be detailed at the fifth South Africa Investment Conference in Sandton next week.

Asked about the formation of such a crisis committee on Thursday morning, Ramaphosa's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said: "He is considering it. He needs to work through its formulation and terms of reference".

Sources say that a crisis committee housed in the president's office will enable a more coordinated approach across ministries that impact the logistics supply chain.

Jan Havenga, a professor at Stellenbosch University, said the crisis committee is an exciting development.

"We have had committees such as the one with the Minerals Council and Transnet, but the reason they don't work is that there is nowhere for business to escalate the problem … If Transnet says no, there is nowhere for business to fall back on," he said. "Now they have the backing of the president …[and] a place to escalate it to."

In a statement released by the Presidency on Thursday morning, Ramaphosa welcomed the proposals presented during the meeting, which are aimed at improving the state of national rail and ports. 

"We need to take urgent measures to resolve the logistics backlog that continues to undermine economic growth," Ramaphosa said in the statement. "I deeply appreciate the constructive manner in which all the impacted sectors have approached the resolution of this crisis. The government will consider some of the proposals presented and act on them quickly in order to unlock much-needed investments into the economy".

The interaction with large exporters follows a meeting the president held with members of the Transnet board and executive management last week, which discussed challenges facing the country's logistics system, including the declining performance of the freight rail network.

Ramaphosa directed Transnet to implement reforms swiftly and completely to turn around the crisis in South Africa's logistics system.

Sources say Transnet executives Portia Derby and Siza Mzimela attended Wednesday's meeting but did not engage.

Juanita Maree, CEO of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders, said the meeting was positive and allowed business to speak from their experience with the logistics network.

"The president has a very deep understanding of what he has to deal with, Maree said, noting that he acknowledged the importance of the private sector and its critical contribution to the economy.

Maree said South Africa is already 21 days away from the major markets. She said that if the supply chain is not kept intact and it takes even more days to reach these markets, it will become a significant problem for time-sensitive cargo.

The Presidency said government would consider and announce a set of measures over the coming weeks,  that will add impetus to the work that is currently under way to improve rail and port efficiencies and in line with the government policy direction for the freight transport sector in the White Paper on National Rail Policy and in legislation such as the National Ports Act and the Economic Regulation of Transport Bill that is currently before Parliament.

The president will also soon meet with organised labour representatives to concretise a collaborative effort that will be coordinated by the Presidency.