Zimbabwe's Changing Freight Transport and Logistical System: Structural Adjustment and Political Change

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Periodical article

Title:	Zimbabwe's Changing Freight Transport and Logistical System: Structural Adjustment and Political Change
Author:	Pedersen, Poul O.
Year:	2004
Periodical:	Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:	30
Issue:	3
Period:	September
Pages:	577-601
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zimbabwe
Subjects:	goods transport change Politics and Government Development and Technology Economics and Trade History and Exploration Inter-African Relations
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/4133910
Abstract:	During the 1990s, Zimbabwe's freight transport and logistical system underwent dramatic changes. The article analyses these changes in detail, paying attention to overseas transport (forwarding industry, shipping companies), trading ports, airfreight, inland transport (railways, road transport), and rural transport. It shows that these changes can be attributed to three main causes: shifts in Zimbabwe's own economy caused by the structural adjustment policies introduced during the 1990s; the political developments in southern Africa that led to greatly increased trade between Zimbabwe and South Africa from 1993 to 1994; and the restructuring of global shipping and air transport caused by liberalization of the transport industry. As a result of these changes, Harare has lost to Johannesburg the status of principal hub for southern Africa that it gained during the 1980s, and Zimbabwe's centrality to southern Africa's geo-economy has been reduced. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]