Transport and the Retailing Revolution since 1961

Major changes occurred in both transport and distribution in this period. Increasing real incomes accompanied by an ever-increasing number of motor vehicles on the road gradually forced the government to invest in motorways and then, even more radically, to loosen the railways’ grip upon long-distance internal transport. Government decentralisation policies also demanded better transport in the homelands, which, on the whole, were not well-provided with railways any more than is northern Scotland or northern New England. At the same time competitive pressures in the distributive sector of the economy were working for greater freedom in the movement of goods between factories and stores, pressure which become intense with the large-scale development of chain stores. It would not be an exaggeration to say that retailing was revolutionised in South Africa in this period. Communications and connections with the outside world were also undergoing radical change, with the introduction of the jet plane that finally destroyed the grand passenger liners that were such a feature of South African life, with the introduction of container ships that killed off the general cargo-passenger ships and with the introduction of specialised bulk carriers for a wide variety of commodities. All these innovations had one thing in common: they were cost-reducing. And, with a reduction in costs, the market widened, encouraging the moves to large-scale production and a further reduction in unit costs. The South African economy is far and away the most efficient in the African continent and in these years the gap between South Africa and most of the territories north of the Limpopo widened. In its infrastructure South Africa has a First World economy.