Whether by rail, road, sea or air, freight forwarders need reliable, detailed information to get ore, produce, timber and other goods from A to B, come rain or shine.
Such information will be accessible through the CSIR Logistics Observatory, a new data-driven digital tool. Through visuals, maps, toggles and charts, it helps the freight industry, researchers, policymakers and other logistics role players understand what is going on with our transport networks.
Suppose a flash flood cuts off access to a bridge on a major trucking route, or strong winds at Cape Town’s port interrupt the loading of shipping containers onto export vessels. What if our road network’s main arteries miss a new industrial development, or if a natural disaster, disease outbreak or political situation creates a gap in the supply chain?
These daily operational, strategic and tactical challenges are what the CSIR Logistics Observatory has been designed for: it will inform decisions to pivot from problems to streamlined supply chains.
“We can make updates in real time as we get access to more information,” says Anieke Swanepoel, a CSIR engineer involved in building and maintaining the observatory.
She says the platform replaces the annual State of Logistics report that the CSIR had published in previous years, essentially becoming a live repository for high-quality research, publications and reports. It also enables data sharing and validation among researchers and industry stakeholders.
Users will be able to zoom in on bridges, airports, railways and targeted infrastructure developments, as well as service delivery metrics, import and export data, specific commodities, climate threats, freight demand dynamics and operational data like congestion or safety incidents.
“It’s user-friendly and interactive, so the user can decide what elements they want to see on our geospatial maps so that it better suits their needs,” says Swanepoel.
Dr Mathetha Mokonyama, who heads up the CSIR’s mobility and logistics research, says the observatory is powered by the CSIR-hosted Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC). The CHPC is a key national cyber-infrastructure facility, and is supported by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI).
“The CHPC is critical and ideal for this platform – the simulation models that we're building are going to be reliant on high-capacity computational infrastructure,” he says.
Mokonyama says transport and logistics make up about 10% of South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product, so big data and digitisation projects like these are key to supporting decision-making in the sector. “If we leave things to chance and we just operate on autopilot, then we are not going to grow the economy as well and as fast as we should.”
The South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF) has welcomed the CSIR Logistics Observatory as an independent tool to explore and address any concerning patterns in air, sea, road and rail freight. They are actively contributing industry data to the platform.
“Once you have a tool that can dissect the data, you can do what-if scenarios,” says SAAFF CEO, Dr Juanita Maree. “You can then influence policy,” she says, emphasising that both the public and private sectors ultimately want policies that support seamless and steady supply chains.
She says the platform will help foster sustainability and trustworthiness in the logistics sector, for the ultimate benefit of customers in South Africa, Africa and beyond.
The CSIR invites industry bodies and donors to further fund the integration of specialised data or applications, such as for agriculture or port logistics.
Swanepoel says her team is also open to exploring data sharing and collaborations with universities and other organisations across the continent. “Our primary aim is to support unbiased national decision-making, but we welcome support from the transport and logistics community to maintain and expand the CSIR Logistics Observatory,” she says.
More information about our research, facilities and services: https://www.csir.co.za/what-we-do/mobility-and-logistics/logistics-and-supply-chains
Published 24 February 2026